The Supreme Court today admitted a petition to examine the acquittal of JMM chief Shibu Soren in connection with the murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha in 1994, in which the CBI has chosen not to challenge the exoneration of former Jharkhand chief minister.

Soren, 65, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court but the Delhi high court had acquitted him.

Jha's mother Priyambada Devi had filed the appeal against the high court judgement but the CBI challenged the verdict against the acquittal of only four other persons in the case.

"We have filed appeal against the acquittal of all the five persons but the CBI has not challenged the acquittal of Soren," Priyambada Devi's counsel K Sunil said.

A bench comprising Justices Altamas Kabir and A K Patnaik admitted the petition filed by Priyambada Devi and the CBI.

The high court on August 22, 2007 had acquitted Soren in connection with the murder of Jha.

The High Court had also acquitted four others -- Nand Kishore Mehta, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupati Nath Mehta and Ajay Kumar Mehta.

It had slammed the CBI for failing "miserably" in collecting evidence against the tribal leader and had also said the agency was unable to prove that the body exhumed in Ranchi was that of Jha.

A Delhi trial court had on November 28, 2006 convicted Soren and four others for abduction and murder of Jha. The order pronouncing life sentence was delivered on December 5, 2006.

Jha had gone missing from Dhaula Kuan area here on May 22, 1994 and was last seen in Ranchi allegedly in the company of Soren's loyalists next day.

Jha was later found murdered as he allegedly had the knowledge about the money received by JMM MPs, including Soren, to save the then minority P V Narasimha Rao Government by voting in its favour in 1993.

His body was allegedly exhumed from Piska village near Ranchi in 1998.