Soren asked to surrender

The Jharkhand High Court today directed the elusive Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren to surrender in the Jamtara court on or before August 2 in connection with the 1975 Chirrudih massacre case failing which action would be taken against him.

Reacting to the court order, Soren, who resigned from the Union Cabinet last week while in hiding after the issuance of the arrest warrant, said he would surrender before the court by August 2 and insisted that he was not absconding but was "among my people".

Giving its ruling on a petition filed by Soren challenging the validity of the July 17 arrest warrant, a Division Bench comprising PK Balasubramanyan and SJ Mukhopadhya held that it was illegal and said the 1986 arrest warrant against him in the case was still in force.

Observing that the 1986 arrest warrant was not politically motivated, the court asked Soren to surrender before the sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Jamtara, by August 2 and warned that if he did not do so action would be taken against him.

The court also committed the cases of all the 69 accused to the sessions court. Earlier the cases of 59 accused were committed to the court.

With today's order the entire Chirrudih case would be for trial at the sessions court.

"I will surrender before the Jamtara sub-divisional judicial magistrate by August 2 and abide by the rule of law," Soren said over phone.

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of hatching a conspiracy against him, he said "false charges have been levelled against me to tarnish the image of the United Progressive Alliance government, mislead Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and defame Congress chief Sonia Gandhi".

"I will continue my fight against the BJP both inside and outside the court," he said adding "they (the BJP) dug out a 20-year-old case which was in connection with the Jharkhand movement despite a promise made in the Assembly by the state government that all such cases will be dropped".

Asked why he was absconding, he said "I am not an absconder. Every citizen has the right to take a case to a higher court". Soren said he was staying in jungle and was among his people.

To a question whether the incident would cause a rift in the JMM-Congress alliance, he said it could never happen. The alliance defeated the NDA in the Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand.

"They are now afraid that they will be wiped out in the coming Assembly elections. That is why they have raised this issue," he added.