Haren Pandya murder: SC dismisses review petition against conviction of nine accused

The review petitions filed against its July 5th judgment in the Haren Pandya murder case has been dismissed by the Supreme court. The petition sought the upholding of the conviction of nine people involved in the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya. Nine out of twelve convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment in July.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has dismissed review petitions filed against its July 5th judgment which had upheld the conviction of nine people involved in the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya.

Pandya was a minister of state for home in the then Narendra Modi government in Gujarat and was shot dead on March 26th, 2003, during a morning walk near Ahmedabad's law garden area.

Dismissing the review petitions, a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Vineet Saran in an order dated November 19th, stated, "The order, of which review has been sought, does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its reconsideration. The review petitions are, accordingly, dismissed."

The Supreme Court had in its judgment in July sentenced nine out of twelve convicts to life imprisonment after setting aside their acquittal by the Gujarat High Court.

Three other accused were sentenced to varying jail terms for charges of criminal conspiracy and offences under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in 2007.