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SC yet to decide Soren's fate in Shashi Nath Jha murder case
JMM leader Shibu Soren, who is all set to become Jharkhand Chief Minister, is facing criminal proceedings in connection with the murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha and the Supreme Court has yet to decide his fate in the case.
JMM leader Shibu Soren, who is all set to become Jharkhand Chief Minister, is facing criminal proceedings in connection with the murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha and the Supreme Court has yet to decide his fate in the case.
Jha was allegedly abducted from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi in May 1994 and taken to Jharkhand where he was killed at a village near Ranchi after he demanded a share in the money the JMM leader got to save the P.V. Narasimha Rao government during the July 1993 no-confidence motion.
CBI had exhumed a skeleton from village Piska Nagari in 1998 and claimed it was that of Jha. Following the recovery of the skeleton, Soren and six others were arrested in the case.
In November 2006, a CBI court in Delhi had convicted Soren and four others of kidnapping, murder and criminal conspiracy and awarded them life imprisonment. Then he was forced to resign as Union Coal Minister. An adverse order from Supreme Court can lead to a similar situation again.
But the Delhi High Court acquitted all the accused in August 2007, holding that the trial court order was "far from convincing."
Interestingly, the CBI did not challenge Soren's conviction in the Supreme Court and questioned the high court's verdict only regarding acquittal of other four accused - Nand Kishore Mehta, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupati Nath Mehta and Ajay Kumar Mehta.
Later, the family members of the deceased challenged the acquittal of all the accused, including Soren, and in March 2008 the Supreme Court issued notices to Soren and the CBI in the case.
Advocate K. Sunil, who is representing Jha's family, told HT, "Neither Soren nor the CBI has filed any reply to the Supreme Court's notice." The case is scheduled to come up for hearing on March 18, 2010, he added.
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