The Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction of ten persons in connection with murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya in 2003.

A bench comprising of Justices Arun Mishra and Vineet Saran rejected the review petitions of ten of the twelve accused who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in July this year. The apex  court had then allowed the appeals of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Gujarat government challenging the high court verdict which had acquitted the convicts of murder charges. Earlier, the trial court too had convicted them for murder and handed out life terms to them.

Pandya, was shot dead on March 26, 2003 in Ahmedabad when he was the home minister of Gujarat in the state government led Narendra Modi.  He was out on a morning walk when he was gunned down. He was a harsh inner party critic of the then chief minister. The case, first investigated by the state police saw several twists and turns after it was handed over to the CBI.

Today, the bench said it had gone through the pleas and the records and was convinced that the July order does not call for a review. In July order, the SC had set aside the High Court judgment, noting it suffered from severe infirmities. It said that the Gujarat High Court’s acquitting the nine people accused of the murder charge was “wholly uncalled for” and was based on a “wrong approach”.

While restoring the conviction of 12 accused, the apex court had also dismissed a PIL filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking a court-monitored fresh probe into the murder case. It also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on CPIL for filing the PIL observing that it was not a “bona fide” petition.

—India Legal Bureau