The Hindu : National : Modi’s name removed from respondents’ list

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 02, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Modi’s name removed from respondents’ list

Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: A division bench of the Gujarat High Court has deleted the name of Chief Minister Narendra Modi from the list of respondents in the appeal petition against the judgment in the Haren Pandya murder case.

The division bench comprising justices J.R. Vora and M.R. Shah ruled that Mr. Modi’s name could not be included at this stage because he was not among the accused in the case investigated by the CBI.

The petition to review the judgment of the special POTA court judge, Sonia Gokani, was filed by Vithhalbhai Pandya, the father of the slain former Minister of State for Home, who claimed that his son’s was a “political murder” at the behest of Mr. Modi. Claiming that the CBI investigation into the case was not foolproof, he wanted the High Court to order a re-investigation into the case and include Mr. Modi as a “party.”

The High Court, however, ruled that under the Scheme of Criminal Procedure, only those who were party during the trial in the lower court, could be made parties in the revision appeal and since Mr. Modi was not an accused in the POTA court, he could not be included now.

The court also rejected Mr. Pandya’s appeal to hear and prosecute Mr. Modi in connection with the Haren Pandya murder case.

Haren Pandya was shot dead on March 26, 2003, near a public park in the city while he was about to disembark from his car for a morning walk. The CBI, which took over the investigation from the local crime branch, held 18 persons responsible for the murder. Twelve of them were nabbed. The case was tried at the special court constituted under the now-defunct Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and Ms. Gokani, in her judgement delivered on July 25 last year, convicted all the 12 accused. She sentenced nine to life imprisonment, two to seven years and one to five-year rigorous imprisonment.

Mr. V. Pandya in his 200-page appeal in the High Court wanted a re-investigation pointing out that the POTA court had overlooked the reports of the ballistic experts who had doubted the possibility of the former minister having been killed near the public park. He maintained that his son was murdered elsewhere, the body dumped in the car and left near the public park to clear any suspicion of any political motive behind the murder.

The next hearing of the case has been fixed for February 4.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National