Haren Pandya murder judgement likely on Monday

Ahmedabad, June 24: The designated POTA Court Judge Sonia Gokani is likely to pronounce the judgement in the sensational Haren Pandya murder case tomorrow.

Haren Pandya, who came into the limelight for his controversial role as Minister of State for Home during the 2002 Gujarat carnage, was killed under mysterious circumstances on March 26, 2003 in Ahmedabad, seven months after the 43-year-old politician quit the Narendra Modi Ministry.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) who investigated the case had filed a charge-sheet against 19 accused in the case, in which the trial has also ended. The CBI in their charge-sheet had said that their investigations revealed that many of the conspirators and the prime accused Asghar Ali were given arms training in Pakistan.

According to the prosecution, on March 26, 2003, accused Asghar Ali and Yunus were handed over a loaded revolver and a pistol by one Anas Machiswala. Thereafter, Yunus armed with these weapons drove Asghar Ali to the Law Garden area of the city where the slain leader used to come every day for a morning walk.

On that fateful day as soon as Haren Pandya arrived at about 0730 hours in his white Maruti Car and parked it at his regular place, Asghar Ali, who was waiting for him, allegedly fired five rounds at him before fleeing from the spot.

Haren Pandya was brought to V S Hospital where he was declared dead at 1200 hrs. A panel of doctors headed by Dr Pathik Rawjibhai Patel conducted his post-mortem during which five bullets were recovered from his body.

According to the CBI, the murder was part of a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by one Mufti Sufiyan, a local cleric of Ahmedabad in collaboration with Rasool Khan Parti, an absconding criminal at present based in Karachi, and certain other Muslim youths of Hyderabad and Ahmedabad who were asked to strike terror in Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat.

Asghar Ali, who had fired at the former Gujarat Minister from point blank range and 14 others was arrested by the CBI, while four other accused - Mufti Sufiyan, Sohail Khan Pathan, Rasool Khan Parti and Mohammad Junaid are still absconding.

The CBI filed a charge-sheet against Asghar Ali and 18 others for committing offences under various sections of POTA, the Arms Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

However, the slain BJP leader's father Vitthalbhai Pandya has demanded that the verdict should be postponed and the case be re-investigated all over again. He has alleged that a top police officer of Gujarat, known as an encounter specialist, was involved in the ''political murder'' of his son.

Apparently, not happy with the way the CBI handled the investigations, he also sent a letter to Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court seeking intervention to direct the CBI to reinvestigate the ''political murder''.

In his letters written to Sonia Gandhi on May 31, 2007 and an earlier letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, dated May 2, 2007, Vitthalbhai has made a request for a ''genuine re-investigation in Haren Pandya's intentional political murder''.

In his letter, he has alleged that the CBI had neglected a pivotal angle in their probe and not examined the most important witnesses in the case. He demanded that the verdict be stayed and re-investigation ordered so that the real conspirators of the murder can be arrested and convicted.

UNI