No more fairy tales, need hard evidence: HC to CBI in Soren case

Pulling up the CBI counsel for failing to do his “homework” in the Shashi Nath Jha murder case in which former Union Minister Shibu Soren was sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court last year, the Delhi High Court today told the agency: “No more fairy tales on the next date of hearing, we need hard evidence.”

The division bench of Justices R S Sodhi and H R Malhotra, hearing final arguments on the appeal filed by Soren, told CBI counsel R M Tiwari: “As a prosecutor, you have to focus and defend your case to your best… we need hard evidence to convince us to keep the accused (Soren) behind bars.” Adjourning the hearing to July 6, the court told the counsel to “study every word of his brief”.

Tiwari had opened his arguments by saying “the entire case is based on circumstantial evidence and is without a single eyewitness”. Justice Sodhi dismissed as “hearsay” the witness Suresh Kumar’s testimony that Jha had demanded Rs 15 lakh of the kickbacks which Soren allegedly received in 1993 from Narasimha Rao to save his government.