The Supreme Court (SC) asked the CBI why it had not appealed against the Delhi high court judgment acquitting Soren and four others in the 1994 murder case of his personal assistant Shashi Nath Jha.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), already facing accusations of bias against opposition parties, added fat to the fire by its apparent reluctance to move against former union minister and current Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren. The JMM is an ally in the UPA government.
The Supreme Court (SC) asked the CBI why it had not appealed against the Delhi high court judgment acquitting Soren and four others in the 1994 murder case of his personal assistant Shashi Nath Jha. The query was raised while the SC admitted an appeal filed by Jha’s mother on Monday.
The CBI replied that it had appealed against the HC order acquitting the four other accused, but not Soren.
It gave no reason for this preclusion. The four accused are Nand Kishore Mehta, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupati Nath Mehta, and Ajay Kumar Mehta.
With the CBI appearing reluctant, Jha’s mother, Priyambada Devi, filed an appeal in the SC against the verdict. A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and AK Patnaik admitted the petition and asked the CBI to respond to her plea by filing an appeal against the Delhi HC verdict, seeking maximum penalty for Soren.
Soren, 65, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court for the murder of Jha in December 2006. But in August 2007, the Delhi high court acquitted him, blaming the CBI for failing to prove Soren’s guilt.
After the trial court decision, he was forced to quit as the then union minister for coal even as the JMM continued to support the Congress-led UPA government.
Jha had gone missing from the Dhaula Kuan area in New Delhi on May 22, 1994, and was seen in Ranchi, allegedly in the company of Soren’s loyalists, the next day.
He was later found murdered as he was suspected to be privy to the money received by JMM parliamentarians, including Soren, to save the then minority PV Narasimha Rao government by voting in its favour in 1993. Jha’s body was allegedly exhumed from Piska village near Ranchi in 1998.
It may be pointed out that CBI has in the past faced the apex court’s indictment for being indifferent in cases involving political leaders such as Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi, who have been patent supporters of the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
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