In an application filed in the court of special judge Ajit Bharihoke, Priyambada Devi, requested him to summon Soren's sons Hemant Soren and Durga Soren, his driver S A Raja, ex-JMM MPs Mandal and Marandi, Mukesh Tirkey, Uma Shanker, Sushil Kumar and Pawan Sharma as accused in the case.

CBI has not chargesheeted these persons for the reasons best known to them, Priyambada Devi said in her application seeking initiation of trial against all these persons.

She accused the CBI of letting off the "culprits" by accepting illegal gratification from them, a charge CBI has termed as "baseless and figment of her imagination."

In its reply, CBI said "a thorough probe into the case has already been made and we couldnot find sufficient evidence against the persons mentioned in the application so as to warrant inclusion of their names in the chargesheet,"

The agency requested the court to direct Jha's mother to give her blood samples for DNA test to get conclusive proof regarding identity of Jha's body.

The matter will be taken up by the court tomorrow.

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 last, 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.

Besides JMM MP Shibu Soren, Sunil Khaware, Ashish Thakur, Nand Kishore Mehta, Ajay Kumar Mehta, Pashupati Nath Mehta and Shailendra Bhattacharya are facing trial for alleged abduction and murder of Jha in May 1994.

Formal trial in the case was postponed yesterday for the third consecutive day as CBI failed to produce accused Sunil Khaware despite production warrants issued by the court.

Special judgeBharihoke postponed the matter and issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Khaware returnable by tomorrow after CBI counsel J S Wadia informed him that the accused, arrested in some other case in Bihar, has been released on bail.

Earlier, CBI witness Charo Oreon alleged that he had been threatened and offered bribe on behalf of Soren and the other accused for not supporting the prosecution case.

Oreon, who had come here to depose before the court on March 23, told that one Ramesh Mehta of village Gudda, Ranchi in Bihar, had threatened to kill him if he gave his testimony.

Oreon requested the court to provide him proper security saying he apprehended risk to his life.

The court asked CBI to ensure personal security of Oreon as well as other witnesses and directed the agency to look into the allegations leveled by him.

Another CBI witness Dr Gautam Sharma had also declined to disclose his residential address saying if it became known to the accused persons he might be eliminated.