Special judge Ajit Bharihoke ordered framing of charges against all the seven accused under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy read with Section 364 (abduction) and Section 302 of IPC (murder), after he found that prima facie a case was made out against them.

The court fixed March four for formal framing of charges.

Besides Soren, other six accused are Ashish Thakur, Sunil Khaware, Nand Kishore Mehta, Ajay Kumar Mehta, Pashupati Nath Mehta and Shailendra Bhattacharya.

According to case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Jha was allegedly kidnapped from Dhaula Kuan area in the capital on May 22, 1994 and taken to Piska Nagari village near Ranchi where he was killed.

CBI in its chargesheet filed on November 10 last year, alleged that Jha was killed as he had knowledge of the alleged JMM-Congress dealto save the Narasimha Rao Government in the July 1993 no-confidence motion.

On August 13 last, CBI had claimed recovery of Jha'sskeleton from the same village. Forensic science laboratory, Hyderabad report had opined that the skull of the skeleton could have belonged to Jha.

Soren and Khaware are currently on bail while other accused are lodged in Tihar jail.