Soren denies role in Shashi Nath Jha murder case

New Delhi, Apr 8 (UNI) Claiming that hed has no role in the murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha in 1994, Union Coal and Mines Minister Shibu Soren has alleged that charges against him are politically motivated.

He said this before Additional Sessions Judge B R Kedia here while recording his statement, which concluded yesterday.

During the recording of his statement in the case, he was asked 130 questions, including about the charges against him, most of which he denied.

CBI had exhumed a skeleton from Piska Nagari (Ranchi) in August 1998 and claimed that it was of Jha. Following the recovery of the skeleton, Soren and six others were arrested in the case.

The agency claimed that Jha's knowledge of payment of bribe to four JMM MPs who had voted against a no-confidence motion against the minority P V Narasimha Rao government in July 1993, and his threat to expose Soren had led to his murder.

However, two successive tests of the exhumed skeletal remains at the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Studies had reportedly established that the remains were not of Jha as they did not match the blood samples taken from his mother and brother.

UNI IP LR BD1454