Soren sentenced to life imprisonment

A city court on Tuesday ordered life imprisonment for former Union coal minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren and five others who were held guilty for the murder of Soren's personal secretary Shashi Nath Jha in 1994.

Additional Sessions Judge B R Kedia also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Soren. Kedia said Rs 2 lakh each would go to Nath's daughters, while the balance of Rs 1 lakh would be given to his mother. With regard to the other convicts, Kedia imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each.

Pursuant to the earlier court directions, Soren was personally present in the court at 2 pm today. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the prosecuting agency, began its arguments on sentence.

Although the agency did not seek death sentence for Soren, it sought the same for Nand Kishore Mehta, who had allegedly killed Nath.

For Soren, the CBI said since he was a party to the conspiracy, he should be sentenced to the maximum punishment prescribed in the statute.

Arguing on behalf of Soren, defence counsel R K Anand requested the court to consider the JMM leader's "stature" and "past" while deciding the punishment.

Anand said Soren was the leader of the struggle movement in Jharkhand and was equivalent to Mahatma Gandhi for the people of his state. Anand said despite the judgement, the identity of the skeleton exhumed by the CBI was doubtful as the DNA was inconclusive.