The Gujarat High Court on Monday acquitted former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Dinu Solanki and six others in the July 2010 murder case of RTI activist Amit Jethwa, observing that the “investigation right from inception appears to be an eyewash.”
In July 2019, a special CBI court in Ahmedabad found the accused in the Amit Jethwa murder case — Dinu Solanki, his nephew Shiva Solanki, Sanjay Chauhan, Shailesh Pandya, Pachan Desai, Udaji Thakore, and Bahadursinh Vader, then police constable of Gir- Gadhada police station — guilty under sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offense) and, 120B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offense) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
While reading out the verdict in open court on Monday, the division bench of Justices AS Supehia and Vimal K Vyas noted that the present case “will be reminisced as an antithesis to ‘Satyamev Jayate’” and said it was “appalling and equally astounding” that the assailants were not apprehended and they escaped “from the limits of Ahmedabad city”, after the murder. Further observing that the “investigation right from inception appears to be an eyewash,” the bench said, “All efforts are made to see that the truth is buried forever. “The perpetrators have succeeded in doing so.”
On July 20, 2010, Amit Jethwa was shot dead by two people outside the Bar Council building opposite the Gujarat High Court. After shooting at Amit Jethwa, the assailants fled the spot, leaving behind their Bajaj Discover motorcycle along with a country-made revolver used for the murder. Initially, the case was investigated by the Crime Branch of Ahmedabad which filed two chargesheets against six accused. In 2012, the Gujarat High Court directed further investigation following a plea by the deceased’s father and CBI charge-sheeted Dinu in 2013 and named him as the key conspirator.
Listing the many junctures where the case failed to hold up in appeal, the bench, in its operative part of the verdict, held on Monday, “We reiterate that the entire right investigation from the inception of offense appears to be perfunctory and prejudiced. The prosecution has failed to secure the confidence of witnesses. The trial court on a preconceived notion of conviction has analyzed the evidence dehors the statute and legal precedents. The trial court was duty-bound to apply the law as written and not as per its instincts. “Resultantly, the judgment where the accused has been convicted is quashed and set aside.”
While quoting Nani A Palkhivala in the verdict, the bench said, “The survival of our democracy and the unity and integrity of the nation depends upon the realization that constitutional morality is no less essential than constitutional legality. Dharma lives in the hearts of public men; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no amendment can save it.”
The trial court had also directed proceedings against 38 witnesses who had turned hostile during the trial. However, the Gujarat High Court on Monday confined the scope of such proceedings to only eight witnesses.
Of the 195 prosecution witnesses who were to depose during the trial, 105 turned hostile, including eight eyewitnesses of the shooting. Bhikabhai, Amit Jethva’s father, then moved the Gujarat HC seeking a retrial, following which the court of Justice JB Pardiwala directed a fresh trial of 26 witnesses.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 06-05-2024 at 14:15 IST
