Haren Pandya murder: Supreme Court dismisses review plea of 9 convicts

The Supreme Court has declined to entertain the plea of nine convicts, sentenced to life for the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya in 2003, urging the court to review the verdict, which held them guilty.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said after perusing the review petitions and the record of appeals, the court is convinced the verdict, whose review has been sought by the petitioners, does not suffer from any error. Therefore, there is no need to re-examine the verdict, it said, adding that no error was apparently pointed out by the review petitions in its judgment delivered on July 5 this year.

The top court did not overturn the trial court judgement, which convicted twelve persons guilty of various offences in connection with murder of the former Gujarat Minister on March 26, 2003 near Law Garden in Ahmedabad. The trial court had sentenced the accused from terms of five years in jail to life imprisonment, but the High Court had acquitted them.

The apex court in its July judgement said that it restores the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court the accused under section 3(1) and 3(3) of POTA and 120AB (criminal conspiracy) and section 302 (murder) read with section 120AB IPC as ordered by the trial court.

The CBI, which probed the case, had said that Pandya was murdered to avenge the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.