2003 Jaggi Murder Case: Chhattisgarh HC Overturns Acquittal, Sentences Amit Jogi to Life
Chhattisgarh HC overturns acquittal, calls earlier verdict “perverse”
Raipur: Amit Jogi, former MLA and son of late former chief minister Ajit Jogi, has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2003 murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ram Avtar Jaggi by the Chhattisgarh high court.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Arvind Kumar Verma in its order on April two has convicted him in the high-profile murder case.
The order was posted on the website of the Chhattisgarh High Court on Monday.
The trial court had convicted 28 accused in the case in 2007 but acquitted Jogi, citing lack of evidence.
The 23-year-old murder case was reopened after the Supreme Court directed the Chhattisgarh high court to decide it on merit, terming the charges ‘grave’.
“We are of the considered opinion that the judgment passed by the learned trial judge acquitting the accused Amit Jogi is palpably illegal, wrong, perverse, contrary to the evidence available on record and without any concrete basis”, the high court bench has ruled in its April two order, while convicting Jogi on charges of murder and conspiracy.
The bench noted that when 28 other accused had already been convicted on the same evidence, acquitting the alleged main conspirator in the murder case was legally unsound.
The high court has asked Jogi to surrender in three weeks.
The case relates to the incident of June four, 2003, in Raipur, in which NCP leader Jaggi, a close aide of late former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, was shot dead in broad daylight.
The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for probe.
As many as 31 persons were named as accused in the case.
The trial court had convicted 28 of them, while acquitting Jogi, citing lack of evidence.
The CBI filed a petition in the high court challenging the trial court’s acquittal.
But the petition was dismissed on the grounds of delay.
Late NCP leader’s son Satish Jaggi took the legal battle to the Supreme Court, leading the apex court to reopen the case in November last year.
Meanwhile, Jogi’s legal team has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order.
