NEW DELHI, 20 July 2004 — Pressure is mounting on union coal minister and JMM chief Shibu Soren to quit the government in the wake of the arrest warrant issued against him in the Chirudih massacre case of 1975 in Jharkhand.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs is examining various legal options, including bail, for him.
Shibu Soren is under pressure as the BJP-led opposition has been blasting the government for including tainted ministers in the Cabinet. With this case in the limelight, the BJP is likely to make its protest even more shrill inside and outside the Parliament.
Meanwhile, the arrest warrant issued against Soren was yesterday received by the Jamtara Superintendent of Police S.N. Jha.
Earlier, Jha had told Arab News over phone that the dispatch of the arrest warrant was being delayed due to a fire incident at the Deogarh district court on Sunday as many judges were busy with that.
The fire broke out on Sunday in the Malkhana of the Deogarh district court where files are stacked and the Jharkhand High Court has asked the registrar (vigilance) to probe the incident.
Soren, who represents Dumka in the Lok Sabha, is a resident of Nemra village under Gola police station in Hazaribagh district and the 1975 incident occurred at Chirudih in erstwhile Bihar, which is now in Jharkhand’s Jamatara district.
The SDJM’s court in Jamtara had issued arrest warrants against Soren and nine others whose cases were not committed to the trial court as also those of 59 others accused in 1986.
JMM sources said the party had yesterday moved the Ranchi High Court against the arrest warrant issued against Soren. The party wants a stay on the execution of the warrant.
However, the fresh heat on Soren came when the BJP, amid an agitation on the issue of “tainted” ministers in the UPA government at the center, fired a fresh salvo asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a stand following the arrest warrant issued against the JMM leader.
“What has been ordered by the court must be executed and the consequences must follow. The law must be allowed to take its own course”, BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here.
