New Delhi/Ranchi, Aug. 22: In his cell in Dumka jail, Shibu Soren switched on the colour TV set and broke into a smile.

Outside, torchlights lit up the streets of Jharkhand. In Santhal Pargana, people danced, beat drums and distributed sweets.

Delhi High Court today acquitted the JMM leader of the murder of his private secretary Shashinath Jha 14 years ago, sparking celebrations among his supporters and calls to make him chief minister.

“The lion of Jharkhand is back and soon you will hear him roar,” said Soren’s youngest son Hemant.

Convicted by a lower court in November 2006 and sentenced to life in prison, the former Union coal minister has spent the last nine months behind bars.

He was brought to the state from Tihar jail in Delhi to face trial in four other criminal cases in sessions courts in Dumka, Giridih, Jamshedpur and Jamtara. All the four courts have given him bail.

In Delhi, a division bench of the high court slammed the prosecution and said the CBI had “miserably failed” to establish the charges against the JMM leader. The agency had not been able to even find the body of the missing secretary. DNA tests carried out on a skeleton dug out near Ranchi couldn’t link it to Jha’s mother and children.

While the prosecution claimed that Jha was abducted from Delhi, witnesses had deposed that they had seen Jha watching a football match and chatting with friends at a paan shop near Ranchi days after he had been allegedly kidnapped.

“There is no evidence on record that Jha threatened to expose Soren, blackmailed him or held such secrets as would lead Soren to eliminate Jha,” the bench said.

“We find no material on record to suggest motive on the part of Soren or any other of the accused persons to murder Jha,” it added, ordering the release of Soren and four others if they are not wanted in any other case.

The Congress-led central alliance welcomed the acquittal but side-stepped queries on whether Soren would be reinstated.

“This is good news. We will now win the Lok Sabha byelection in Jharkhand,” parliamentary affairs minister P.R. Das Munshi said.

Jha’s brother Amarnath said the family would challenge the acquittal.

Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, who last year switched sides with three others to give the UPA the majority, was among the first to call Soren even as the sound of crackers reverberated in Santhal Pargana. Soren’s houses at Bokaro, Dumka and Ranchi were lit up.

There were demands that he replace Koda, against whom opposition has been growing within the alliance.