BJP dissidents back Pandya's wife's demand for reinvestigation

New Delhi, July 1 (UNI) BJP dissidents in Gujarat have backed the demand by slain party leader Haren Pandya's wife for a reinvestigation in the case by the CBI as the previous probe ''failed to establish the motive behind the killing and the conspiracy angle''.

The demand was made by Pandya's wife Jagriti Ben after a designated POTA court sentenced nine people to life imprisonment for killing the senior BJP leader in 2003 in a park in Ahmedabad.

The leaders, who were in Delhi to met the central party leadership, observed that the convicts had escaped the death sentence simply because the court refused to view it as rarest of the rare case as the investigating agency, the CBI, ''failed to properly establish the motive behind the killing''.

''The CBI which investigated the case made no attempts to talk to Pandya's widow or his father to understand the motives behind the assassination and the BJP has the moral responsibility to come to the aid of one of its prominent leader who fell to assassin's bullets,'' one of the rebel state leaders said.

He said Ms Pandya had raised doubts that her husband could have been murdered somewhere else and was later brought to the park from where his body was found. She pointed out had the shooting occurred at a public place, some eye-witnesses would have been there, which was not the case.

The Gujarat government has refused Jagriti Ben's demand, saying she was free to approach the Higher Court for her the redressal of her grievance.

After the incident, the prime accused fled the country and two years later his family also managed to escape. ''Unless he is brought back to India, the conspiracy angle will remain incomplete and the culprits will never be punished,'' the leader said.

There were also obviously several flaws in the investigation because Mr Pandya had wounds inflicted by a .8 mm and .5 mm revolvers while the investigation agency was oblivious about the second weapon, the dissidents said, quoting the murdered leader's wife.

According to police, Pandya was shot dead from the bullets fired from a gun that aimed at him from a four inch lowered glass of a car while the forensic report speaks of bullet piercing through thigh to stomach. ''These contradictions needs to be addressed and the BJP should help the family to get answers for these searching questions,''they said.

UNI