Union Coal Minister Shibu Soren was on Tuesday held guilty of involvement in the killing of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha 12 years ago by a Delhi court in the first such conviction of a Union Minister in a murder case.

Soren stepped down from the cabinet after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought his resignation in the wake of the verdict.

Others convicted in the case are -- Nand Kishore Mehta alias Nandu, Shailendra Bhattacharya, Pashupati Nath Mehta alias Posho and Ajay Kumar Mehta alias Dillip.

Additional Sessions Judge B R Kedia found Soren, who is also chief of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, guilty of kidnapping and hatching the conspiracy to kill his secretary.

According to the CBI case, Jha was abducted from Dhaula Kuan area in the capital on May 22, 1994 and taken to Piska Nagari village near Ranchi where he was killed.

In the chargesheet filed on November 10, 1998, CBI said Jha was 'killed' as he knew about the alleged JMM-Congress deal to save the Narasimha Rao government in the July 1993 no-confidence motion and was demanding his share in the deal.

Jha was apprehensive of the threat to his life from Soren and his family members and had told his mother Priyambada Devi and brother Vijay Nath Jha about it, CBI said.

"Jha had been putting pressures on Soren to get much more financial favours in lieu of his knowledgeof secrets and illegal financial dealings of Soren," CBI chargesheet alleged.

On August 13, 1998, CBI claimed recovery of Jha's Skeleton from Piska Nagari village near Ranchi. The report submitted by forensic science laboratory, Hyderabad, had opined that the skull of the skeleton could have belonged to Jha.

The "abduction-cum-murder" case was registered on June two, 1994 with the parliament street police station here on a complaint lodged by Amar Nath Jha, elder brother of the deceased.

It was subsequently transferred to CBI by the orders of Delhi High Court on a writ petition filed by Jha's mother.

However, the court acquitted two others -- Sunil Khaware and Asish Thakur. Soren, 62, was present in the court when the judge pronounced the verdict.

Earlier, in his tenure in this government, Soren had to resign after a Jharkhand court issued a non-bailable warrant against him in connection with a case of murder during a protest agitation in the early 80's.

He is on bail in the case and was re-inducted into the Cabinet early this year.