Shibu Soren acquitted of charges of murdering his PA

New Delhi, Aug 22 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today cleared former Union Minister and JMM leader Shibu Soren of charges of murdering his personal assistant Shashinath Jha 13 years ago and held that the CBI had failed to prove the guilt of the tribal leader, revered as 'Guruji' by his followers.

Soren, who has been serving life sentence, awarded by the lower court in the case on December 5, 2006, had moved the High Court to oppose the sentence.

The CBI had accused Soren of getting killed his personal secretary Shashinath Jha.

Reversing the sentence, a division bench comprising Justices R S Sodhi and H R Malhotra held that the trial court's judgement dated November 28, 2006 was erroneous.

The judges cited the Supreme Court judgement saying that Soren is not guilty of having accepted bribe. On the contrary, the Supreme Court put a ban to any prosecution by virtue of an immunity conferred upon him under the Constitution.

Besides, ''there is nothing on record to show that Jha fell into disgrace over any particular act of his which caused anoyance to Shibu,'' the judges held.

''Neither is there any evidence to show as to when and where the conspiracy was hatched, if at all. The missing links are galore,'' the order added.

''The CBI's attempts to read Soren's mind following Jha's reported disappearance could not pass muster,'' the judges held.

What apparently decisively swung the decision in Soren's favour was the way the CBI sought to prove the dead body, found almost four years later than his disappearance, as Jha's. Even Jha's family not only strongly disputed the CBI claims over identification of the body but also refused to undergo any DNA test.

The order reads, ''neither the family supports any of the wearing apparels found upon the skeleton as those belonging to Jha nor does the postmortem supports the prosecution's theory of Jha having been killed with two iron rod blows on his head,''.

Further is the results of the DNA fingerprinting tests conducted at the instance of the trail court which, unambiguously, held that the skeleton was not that of Jha.

Jha was abducted and found dead in the forest of Piskamore, Ranchi.

Even though the identity of the dead body was disputed by Jha's family, the CBI had argued that the body was his.

However, later the DNA test was found to be inconclusive.

A lower court had sentenced Shibu Soren to life imprisonment, taking into account his motives and circumstantial evidences.

The High Court today said CBI's claim that the body was of Jha was not convincing enough nor it could establish that he was murdered at all.

Jha's family said they would appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal.

The conviction of Soren in the case had caused a sensation as for the first time in the history of independent India, a Union Minister had been found guilty of murder.

The division bench of the High Court today also acquitted four other people who had been held guilty of having killed Jha on November 28, 1994.

The bench had reserved its verdict in the case on August 1 after completion of the arguments of the CBI.

Soren is currently lodged in a Jharkhand jail in connection with a 1975 mass murder case in the state.

A city court on November 28, 2006 had held Union Minister of Coal Shibu Soren guilty of the murder of his personal assistant Shashinath Jha, prompting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his resignation from the Union Cabinet.

Additional Sessions Judge B R Kedia ... picking up from para seven, line one of DI 27 (REOPEN) LAW-HC-SOREN THREE LAST NEW DELHI.

UNI