Guruji out of prison, Jharkhand celebrates

New Delhi: Jharkand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader and former union coal minister Shibu Soren was released from Dumka Jail in Jharkhand on Saturday.

Soren, after his release, said he would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after August 27.

However, the former union coal minister refused to comment on whether he would insist on his inclusion in the UPA ministry at the Centre.

"My first priority will be to visit Jamshedpur to help my candidate win the Lok Sabha by-poll. Later I will leave for Delhi to attend Parliament. In Delhi I will call on the Prime Minister," news agency PTI quoted Soren as saying.

When asked whether he would like to be the chief minister, Soren said, "I am a permanent CM. The only difference is I am an ex-chief minister”.

The JMM leader also evaded the question when asked whether he was satisfied with the performance of the Koda government.

"I was in jail for nine months. Now that I have been released, we have to sit, review and discuss threadbare. Today is a day for celebration. Let us celebrate," he was quoted as saying.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday acquitted Soren in the murder of his personal assistant Shashinath Jha in 1992.

Soren was let out for lack of evidence as the CBI had failed to prove that the body found from a village near Ranchi in 1998 was that of Jha.

A Delhi trial court had on December 26, 2006 convicted Soren and four others guilty for the abduction and murder of Jha.

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According to the prosecution, Jha went missing from Dhaula Kuan area of Delhi on May 22, 1992 and was last seen in Ranchi in the company of Soren's loyalists the next day. His body was exhumed from Piska village near Ranchi in 1998.

Jha was allegedly murdered as he had knowledge about the money allegedly received by JMM MPs, including Soren, from the then Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao to vote in favour of his minority government in Parliament in 1993, they said.

The 62-year-old tribal leader from Jharkand, who had to quit as Union Coal Minister following his conviction on November 28 last, was lodged at Jamtara prison in Jharkhand in connection with Chirudih massacre case.

Four other convicts, Nand Kishore Mehta, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupati Nath Mehta and Ajay Kumar Mehta, were also acquitted.