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A local court acquitted former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren in the 1974 Kudko double murder case for lack of evidence on Tuesday.
The court of Additional District Judge (9th-fast track), Mohammad Qasim, who had reserved the judgement on June 3, pronounced the verdict in the presence of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief.
An FIR was filed on April 15, 1974 by one Bahadur Singh, who had accused Soren of leading a group that allegedly killed Khirodar Singh and Chundi Singh following the slaughter of a goat at Kudko village under Pirtand police station in Giridih district.
Soren was the sole accused after eight others had been acquitted in 1986. The chargesheet was filed in 1978.
This was the third case in which Soren has been acquitted by different courts.
He walked free in the 1975 Chirrudih massacre case three years ago while a Delhi court acquitted him in the Shashinath Jha murder case in 2007.
In 2004, Soren, the then coal minister, had gone into hiding for over a week after a Jamtara court issued a non-bailable warrant in connection with the 1975 Chirrudih massacre in which 19 people were killed.
After being asked to resign, Soren had then sent his papers through a party delegation to the prime minister's office in Delhi.
Soren was re-inducted in the union cabinet with the same portfolio on January 29, 2006. But his tenure was again shortlived as he had to step down following his conviction in the Shashinath Jha murder case by a Delhi court.
He was acquitted in this murder case by Delhi high court on August 22, 2007.