New Delhi: Overturning a Gujarat high court decision, the Supreme Court on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment nine accused in the 2003 murder of then Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya who was shot down during a morning walk in Ahmedabad.
The bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Vineet Saran struck down the nine convicts’ acquittal in the high court and restored the POTA court’s decision to punish them on murder charges, observing that the high court’s decision was “wholly uncalled for” and based on a “wrong approach”.
The top court’s decision came on appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) challenging the high court’s decision acquitting them of charge of murder on August 29, 2011.
The high court had dropped the murder charge and upheld the trial court verdict convicting them for the charges of criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder.
The Supreme Court has now restored the trial court’s order that had held 12 persons guilty of various offences in the case. The trial court had awarded jail term ranging from five years to life imprisonment to the accused.
