Shibu Soren in judicial remand till August 13

In a move that is likely to cause satisfaction to the National Democratic Alliance-led Opposition, one of the "tainted" ministers in the Manmohan Singh government, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren, was remanded to judicial custody till August 13.

This was after his bail prayer got rejected and he surrendered before the district and sessions fast track court here. District and Sessions Fast Track Court Judge Uday Narain Mishra passed the order in the case relating to the 1975 Chirrudih massacre.

Soren will be temporarily housed in a makeshift jail, the chamber of the principal of Jamtara Women's College. He will be taken to Hazaribagh tomorrow.

The sub-divisional judicial magistrate of Jamtara had on July 17 revived the non-bailable arrest warrant against Soren, prompting him to challenge it in the Jharkhand High Court.

Keeping the non-bailable arrest warrant in abeyance till August 2, the division bench of the High Court had asked the tribal leader to surrender before the Jamtara court.

Of the 69 accused, Soren, along with nine others, had not been committed to the sessions court by the sub-divisional judicial magistrate for "misusing dates" in 1986 despite a 1973 amendment. The 1973 amendment states that a case and not an accused should be committed for trial.

Soren, who resigned as coal minister on the instruction of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh following the non-bailable warrant, resurfaced on July 30 after 10 days in hiding, claiming he had been in the jungles and among his people.

On the issue of Soren's arrest, the principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was divided.

While several leaders including a large section of the Rashtriya Sway-amsevak Sangh argued that campaigning for Soren's arrest would alienate tribals in Jharkhand, another group, mostly represented by tribal leaders in the party, had engineered the digging up of the 29-year-old case, keeping an eye on the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections. 

However, sections in the BJP are still not certain of the impact of this episode.