HC verdict in Soren's sec murder case

New Delhi, Aug 22: The Delhi High Court is likely to pronounce its verdict on former Union Minister Shibu Soren's petition challenging his conviction and life sentence in his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha murder case.

A local court had on December 26, 2006 sentenced Soren and four others to life imprisonment for kidnapping and killing Jha.
In his appeal, Soren challenged the trial court's conviction order on the grounds that the trial judge had ignored the two DNA reports to identify the body of the deceased. He also claims that every time the report was made available, it had turned out to be negative.
Prosecutors said Jha went missing from the Dhaula Kuan area of Delhi on May 22, 1992 and was last seen in Ranchi in the company of Soren's loyalists next day.

They claim that Jha was later murdered as he allegedly possessed knowledge about the money received by JMM MPs, including Soren, from former Prime Minister P V Narsimah Rao to vote in favour of his minority government in Parliament in 1993.
Jha's mother Priyambada and his two daughters namely Kavita and Preeti filed a petition seeking enhancement of the sentence from life imprisonment to death penalty for Shibu Soren. They also sought enhancement of compensation from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.
Earlier, on March 14, the High Court had rejected the bail plea of Soren, who is undergoing life term in connection with the murder case.

Other convicts who approached the Court challenging trial court's verdict include Nand Kishore Mehta, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupati Nath Mehta and Ajay Kumar Mehta.

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