The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the conviction and life sentence of Amit Jogi, son of Chhattisgarh’s former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, in a 2003 murder case, reported Bar and Bench.
He had been convicted by the Chhattisgarh High Court on April 2 for conspiring to kill Nationalist Congress Party treasurer Ramvatar Jaggi. The NCP leader had been shot dead in Raipur in June 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 Congress government at the time.
On April 6, the High Court sentenced Amit Jogi to life imprisonment.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi on Thursday asked how Amit Jogi could be sentenced without hearing him, reported Live Law.
“What kind of judgment...conviction and sentence before hearing?” asked the bench.
The court also issued notices on Amit Jogi’s application against the conviction.
In May 2007, a trial court convicted 28 persons for Jaggi’s murder. Amit Jogi, however, had been 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”.
While convicting Amit Jogi, the High Court had described his acquittal by the trial court as “palpably illegal, wrong, perverse, contrary to the evidence available on record and without any concrete basis”.
“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 High Court had said.
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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