Chief minister Shibu Soren?s new appointments?of Sukhdeo Singh as his principal secretary and Manohar Lal Pal as his personal secretary?have raised many eyebrows.

While Singh, a 1987 batch IAS officer, was former chief minister Madhu Koda?s principal secretary, Pal was personal secretary to Soren till last year when he quit following his defeat in the Tamar Assembly bypoll.

Almost a decade ago, Pal had pleaded guilty in a case where he was accused of forging a BE (mechanical) degree to get a job with the Ranchi-based Central Mine Planning and Design Institute. The charges against him had surfaced in 1995 after the company received a complaint. An internal inquiry was conducted and the CBI was subsequently asked to probe the case.

The CBI filed a chargesheet against Pal under various sections of the IPC, including Section 420. Pal did not challenge the chargesheet and pleaded guilty. As a result, he was awarded one-month imprisonment and fined Rs 25,000. The court waived his prison sentence but ordered that he would deposit the fine after he pleaded that his family was dependent on him for survival. However, the company dismissed him from service.

Though Pal deposited the fine, the CBI challenged the court?s decision in the Jharkhand High Court in 2000. The case is still pending. He is also under the scanner of the state Vigilance Bureau and Enforcement Directorate.

Asked why he had appointed Pal as his personal secretary, Soren was evasive in his reply and said he would strengthen the Vigilance Bureau to contain corruption. ?Our government will do everything to check corruption,? he added.

Also, Pal?s premises figured in the nationwide raids conducted by the Income Tax sleuths in connection with the case of Koda and his associates, including ex-minister Kamlesh Singh, Binod Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary on October 30. These raids revealed that Koda in league with Sinha and Coudhary, who were allegedly linked to Pal, had made illegal investments and hawala transactions.

Meanwhile, a Giridih court asked Soren to appear before it on February 3 in connection with a 35-year-old double murder case.