Soren acquitted in last of 3 murder cases

RANCHI: Former Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren was on Tuesday acquitted in a 36-year-old murder case, the last of the three cases of murder against him, by a local court for lack of evidence. Soren, who appeared before the court of additional district judge (9th-fast track), Mohammad Qasim, in person looked relieved after the verdict.

The court had reserved its judgement on June three. The case related to an FIR filed on April 15, 1974, by one Bahadur Singh who had accused Soren of leading a group that killed two persons, Khirodar Singh and Chundi Singh, following the slaughter of a goat at Kudko village under Pirtand police station in Giridih district.

The chargesheet was filed in 1978. Eight of the accused were acquitted in 1986. Mr Shibu Soren was the sole accused remaining. Soren was earlier acquitted in the 1975 Chirrudih massacre case in which 19 persons were killed at Chirrudih village of Jamtara district on January 23, 1975, by a mob.

Mr Shibu Soren was accused of inciting the mob to kill ‘dikus’, or outsiders, following a movement launched by the JMM chief to drive them away.

In 2004, Soren, the then Union coal minister, had gone into hiding for over a week after a Jamtara court issued a non-bailable warrant against him for the Chirrudih massacre case but he did not resign.

Soren later sent his resignation through a party delegation to the Prime Minister’s Office. He was also acquitted by the Delhi High Court in the case relating to the murder of his secretary Shashinath Jha murder case on August 22, 2007, but not before spending nine months in jails.

Jha, who was abducted from Dhaula Kuan in Delhi in 1994, had learnt about the alleged deal between Congress and JMM chief Shibu Soren to save the then P V Narasimha Rao government in a no-confidence motion.