RTI Activist Amit Jethva Murder Case- Gujarat High Court Suspends Sentence Of Life-Imprisonment Of Ex-MP Dinu Solanki

The Gujarat High Court today suspended the Life-imprisonment sentence of Ex-BJP MP Dinu Bogha Solanki who was convicted by a special CBI court in 2019 for killing RTI activist Amit Jethwa in 2010 after the activist had tried to expose illegal mining activities in the Gir forest region.

Suspending his sentence and granting him conditional bail, the Bench of Justice Paresh Upadhyay and Justice AC Joshi observed that the CBI court's judgment was based on 'assumptions and presumptions' and that the verdict was 'prima facie erroneous'.

His sentence has been suspended for the duration of the pendency of his appeal (file against CBI's Court conviction judgement) before the Gujarat High Court.

The Court observed that the case was based on circumstantial evidence and referred to the case of Sharad Birdhi Chand Sarda vs State Of Maharashtra 1984 AIR 1622 and noted that the accused of an offence must be and not may be proved to be guilty.

The Court also observed that initially the applicant was not named as an accused, either by the state police authorities or by the CID, however, when the matter was transferred to CBI in the year 2013, and the CBI found in its investigation that one person who was employed by the applicant said that he had heard applicant saying that something was needed to be done regarding the deceased.

Therefore, in the year 2013, the CBI named him as the prime accused of hatching conspiracy to kill the deceased (RTI activist).

In these circumstances, the Court found the decision of CBI as unsustainable while noting that there was a breach of principles laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Sharad Birdhi Chand Sarda and the Court didn't find any chain of evidence established against the applicant.

The Court was of the view that even false implication of applicant can't be ruled out. Consequently, the Court granted him bail on a 1 lakh personal bond and one surety of equal amount with the further condition that he shall not leave the country without the permission of the Court.

Background 

The court held Solanki, who was the Junagadh MP from 2009 to 2014, guilty of murder and conspiracy along with his cousin Shiva Solanki. The others accused convicted in the case were Shailesh Pandya, Bahadursinh Vadher, Panchan G Desai, Sanjay Chauhan, and Udaji Thakore.