SC overturns HC order, jails all Pandya accused

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday reversed the Gujarat high court’s decision to acquit all the 12 accused in the sensational murder of BJP leader and former state home minister Haren Pandya in 2003 and upheld the trial court verdict convicting all and sentencing nine of them to life imprisonment.
After minutely examining all the evidence, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra allowed the appeal by CBI against the HC verdict and held that evidence produced by the agency was sufficient to hold the accused guilty in the murder case.
There were 12 accused in the case and the trial court had convicted all of them and awarded life imprisonment to nine to them. Three convicts were awarded jail terms of seven years, which they had undergone by the time the HC passed the verdict. With the apex court reviving the trial court order, the nine accused will be sent to jail to undergo the sentence.
The bench also dismissed a PIL filed by NGO “Centre for Public Interest Litigation” (CPIL) seeking a courtmonitored fresh probe in the Pandya case. The court expressed displeasure over filing of the petition at a time when final hearing on CBI’s appeal was going on in the case and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the NGO.
“We find that the petition cannot be said to have been filed bona fide. Even otherwise, the petition is bereft of merit. It raises mainly same questions which have been dealt with in the appeal... The matter should have rested finally as the petition filed by the family members also stands dismissed by this court. Raking up the matter again and again is not permissible and was wholly unwarranted in the facts and circumstances of the case. The same amounts to political vendetta,” the court said.
Pandya was shot dead on March 26, 2003 near Law Garden in Ahmedabad during morning walk. As per CBI, the motive behind the murder was to spread terror amongst the Hindus and it was part of an international conspiracy.