Ousted Indian minister gets life for murder

INDIA: An Indian court sentenced a former cabinet minister to life behind bars for conspiracy in the abduction and murder of an aide, reports said.

Shibu Soren, who until last week was the country's coal minister, is the first Indian cabinet minister to be charged in a murder case. Federal detectives had demanded he was executed.

The sentencing of 62-year-old Soren, a tribal leader from the eastern state of Jharkhand, followed the conviction Friday of former Indian international cricketer and opposition party MP Navjot Singh Sidhu for killing a man during an outburst of road rage.

Soren's life term was handed down by a lower court in the Indian capital, and the former minister - who still holds a seat in parliament - has the right to appeal.

The court also ordered Soren to pay a fine of 500,000 rupees (11,100 dollars), the Press Trust of India said.

Soren was sacked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week after the court found him guilty of the 1994 murder and abduction of his former private secretary, Shashi Nath Jha, who was allegedly blackmailing him over a corruption scandal.

Jha's relatives, who were present in court when the verdict was read out, described the verdict as a victory for justice, but said they would have preferred the death sentence for Soren.

"I would have liked to see Soren hang for what he did to my father," Kavita Jha, one of the victim's daughters, told the Hindi news channel Aaj Tak.

NEW DELHI, Wednesday, AFP