By IANS
Ranchi : Former union minister Shibu Soren was Thursday acquitted of a murder charge in connection with the massacre of 11 people in a Jharkhand village in 1975.
A fast-track court in Jharkhand’s Jamtara district acquitted Soren and six others, while convicting 14 people for the lynching of 11 people including nine Muslims by a mob in Chirudih village of Jamtara district Jan 23, 1975. One suspect is still absconding.
The former minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief had been forced to quit the union council of ministers for the first time in July 2004 after being declared an absconder in this case.
Soren had been accused of inciting the mob through a speech where he attacked “outsiders” in what was then the state of Bihar.