NEW DELHI, Nov 29: The Indian government came under heavy fire from opposition parties on Wednesday after a cabinet minister was convicted of involvement in the murder of an aide to avoid a corruption scandal.

In a stormy parliament session MPs, led by the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explain why he had let coal minister Shibu Soren into the cabinet.

Soren resigned late yesterday after a Delhi court found him guilty of conspiracy in the 1994 abduction and murder of his former private secretary.

Sentencing in the case will take place on Thursday with Soren potentially facing the death penalty.

“Earlier we were trying to focus attention on the criminalisation of the politics, but now we have the criminalisation of the council of ministers,” said BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani.

But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi only responded by saying: “It is most unfortunate that Advani has raised this issue. The prime minister does not owe an explanation to the house.”

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said private secretary Shashi Nath Jha was murdered because he was blackmailing Soren, also the head of the regional Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party, over a political scandal.

Four lawmakers from the party allegedly accepted bribes in July 1993 to vote against a no-confidence motion against the Congress government, then in power and headed by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.

“Jha knew some money had changed hands and had been demanding money from Soren,” a CBI official, who asked not to be named, said.

Soren's party is now part of the ruling coalition government, headed by the Congress party, and has five lawmakers in the 545-member federal parliament.

“We have only one question? How many murderer ministers do you have in the cabinet?,” several opposition lawmakers shouted in today 's parliament session.

The BJP has said it will press for the resignation of other officials, such as junior minister for water resources Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, who faces criminal charges for allegedly helping secure his brother's release from police custody.

India has become notorious for its lawless politicians, thanks in part to a Supreme Court judgment in 2003 that required them to disclose criminal records.

A study by an Indian watchdog after the disclosure rule was put in place found that nearly a quarter of the more than

540 people elected to parliament in 2004 faced criminal charges ranging from murder to rape.—AFP