The Supreme Court on Friday convicted 12 persons for killing former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya in 2003. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra allowed the appeals of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Gujarat government challenging the high court order by which the convicts were absolved of murder charges in the case.
The Supreme Court, however, dismissed the PIL of NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking court-monitored fresh probe into the killing. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on CPIL for filing the PIL and said no further petition would be entertained in the case.
Pandya was a minister in the then Narendra Modi-led state government in Gujarat. He was shot on March 26, 2003 in Ahmedabad near Law Garden during morning walk. According to the CBI, he was murdered to avenge the 2002 communal riots in the state.
The appeals were filed by the CBI and the state police questioning the August 29, 2011 acquittal by the Gujarat High Court as being erroneous. The high court, while acquitting the 12 persons of the charges of murder, had upheld the trial court's decision to convict them of the charges of criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder and for the offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).