The Chhattisgarh High Court has sentenced Amit Jogi, son of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, to life imprisonment in a 2003 murder case, reported The Hindu on Monday.
He had been convicted on Thursday for conspiring to kill Nationalist Congress Party treasurer Ramvatar Jaggi. The NCP leader had been shot dead in Raipur on June 4, 2003, when Ajit Jogi was chief minister.
Jaggi was killed ahead of a massive rally by the NCP, which was said to have been posing a challenge to the incumbent Congress government.
On Thursday, the High Court directed Amit Jogi to surrender within three weeks.
On Monday, he moved the Supreme Court against his conviction, reported The Indian Express. The matter has been listed for hearing on April 20.
On May 31, 2007, a trial court convicted 28 persons for the murder. Amit Jogi, however, was acquitted.
The Central Bureau of Investigation had challenged the acquittal in 2011. However, the High Court had rejected the application on the grounds of delay. It had also rejected appeals by the Chhattisgarh government and Satish Jaggi, son of Ramavtar Jaggi.
At the time, the CBI had moved the Supreme Court against the order.
In November, the top court referred the case back to the High Court, directing it to consider the investigating agency’s application afresh. The Supreme Court had held that although the CBI filed the application after a significant delay, it was equally true that “the charges against respondent Amit Jogi were very grave, involving a conspiracy to murder a member of a rival political party”.
In the verdict on Thursday, the High Court described the trial court’s acquittal of Amit Jogi as “palpably illegal, wrong, perverse, contrary to the evidence available on record and without any concrete basis”, reported The Indian Express.
“It is pertinent to note that the learned trial judge has unnecessarily attempted to distinguish the role of accused Amit Jogi from that of the other co-accused/convicts,” The Hindu had quoted the High Court bench as saying.
It added: “The finding that the co-accused acted independently to please Amit Jogi, without his knowledge, and in a manner not contemplated by him, is unsustainable.”
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