Today(on 6th May),The Gujarat High Court has granted permission to the appeals filed by former BJP MP Dinu Solanki and six others against their conviction in the case of the murder of RTI activist Amit Jethwa in 2010.
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Ahmedabad: Today(on 6th May),The Gujarat High Court has granted permission to the appeals filed by former BJP MP Dinu Solanki and six others against their conviction in the case of the murder of RTI activist Amit Jethwa in 2010. The division bench comprising Justices AS Supehia and Vimal K Vyas allowed the appeals, quashing the CBI court’s order that sentenced them to life imprisonment. This decision comes after a thorough examination of the proceedings, with the High Court noting that the trial court seemed to have a “preconceived bias towards conviction.”
According to the High Court’s observations, the investigation, right from the inception of the offence, appeared to be “perfunctory and prejudiced.” This casts doubt on the integrity of the entire process leading to the convictions. Jethwa’s murder, which occurred outside the high court premises on July 20, 2010, has been a subject of intense legal scrutiny for years.
In 2019, the CBI court sentenced Solanki and six others to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh each for murder and criminal conspiracy. However, the High Court had earlier suspended Solanki and his nephew’s life sentences pending their appeals.
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In September 2021, the High Court had suspended Dinu Solanki’s sentence, providing a glimmer of hope pending his appeal against the CBI court’s 2019 verdict. This decision was further echoed last year when the High Court also granted bail to his nephew Shiva Solanki, who was also convicted in the case.
Amit Jethwa’s murder, occurring as he utilized the Right to Information (RTI) Act to expose alleged illegal mining activities involving Dinu Solanki, deeply rattled the pillars of justice. Initially, the FIR implicated two unidentified assailants, leading to an investigation by the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which subsequently filed a chargesheet.
However, in September 2012, due to the gravity and complexity of the case, the High Court transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Subsequently, the CBI court convicted the seven accused persons on June 7, 2019, sentencing them to life imprisonment.
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