The Supreme Court today has listed the petition seeking a fresh probe into the death of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya before the Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra..The Bench of Justices AK Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer took up the petition for hearing today, noting that an appeal relating to the same case has already been heard by a Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra..Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner organisation Centre for PIL, told the Court that four new facts relating to the investigation have emerged after the trial..However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta questioned the locus of the organisation in the case..The Court noted that the matter should be heard by the same Bench which had heard the appeal against the High Court judgment and reserved its verdict. It, therefore, listed the fresh petition before the Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Vineet Saran..Pandya was found murdered in Ahmedabad in 2003. The murder was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The trial court had convicted 12 persons for the murder, but the Gujarat High Court acquitted them, while noting that the investigating agency has shown ineptitude in its investigation and that due to a “botched” and “misdirected” investigation, injustice has been caused..The petition filed by Centre for PIL states “some startling information” regarding Haren Pandya’s murder has recently come to light, and has been extensively reported by the media . This calls for further inquiry into the matter, the petition states..The petition, which has arraigned the Central government and the CBI as parties, places reliance on the testimony of one of the witnesses in the another controversial case – the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case – to make its claims. Inter alia, reliance is also placed on newspaper reports and the book Gujarat Files authored by journalist Rana Ayyub to contend that there is material indicating that the death of Pandya was a murder borne out of a political conspiracy.
The Supreme Court today has listed the petition seeking a fresh probe into the death of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya before the Bench led by Justice Arun Mishra..The Bench of Justices AK Sikri and S Abdul Nazeer took up the petition for hearing today, noting that an appeal relating to the same case has already been heard by a Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra..Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner organisation Centre for PIL, told the Court that four new facts relating to the investigation have emerged after the trial..However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta questioned the locus of the organisation in the case..The Court noted that the matter should be heard by the same Bench which had heard the appeal against the High Court judgment and reserved its verdict. It, therefore, listed the fresh petition before the Bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Vineet Saran..Pandya was found murdered in Ahmedabad in 2003. The murder was investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The trial court had convicted 12 persons for the murder, but the Gujarat High Court acquitted them, while noting that the investigating agency has shown ineptitude in its investigation and that due to a “botched” and “misdirected” investigation, injustice has been caused..The petition filed by Centre for PIL states “some startling information” regarding Haren Pandya’s murder has recently come to light, and has been extensively reported by the media . This calls for further inquiry into the matter, the petition states..The petition, which has arraigned the Central government and the CBI as parties, places reliance on the testimony of one of the witnesses in the another controversial case – the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case – to make its claims. Inter alia, reliance is also placed on newspaper reports and the book Gujarat Files authored by journalist Rana Ayyub to contend that there is material indicating that the death of Pandya was a murder borne out of a political conspiracy.
