By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday requested the Gujarat High Court to expeditiously dispose of the appeal of former MP Dinu Bogha Solanki, who has challenged his conviction and life sentence awarded in connection with RTI activist Amit Jethwa murder case, preferably by year-end.
“Considering the nature of issues involved, we deem it appropriate to request the high court to dispose of the appeal expeditiously, preferably by end of 2022,” a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar said.
The apex court passed the order while hearing a plea against the September last year order of the high court which had suspended the life sentence awarded to the former MP by a trial court and had granted him bail.
RTI activist Amit Jethwa was shot dead outside the Gujarat High Court in 2010.
In July 2019, the trial court had sentenced Solanki and six others to life imprisonment in the case of killing Jethwa after he tried to expose the illegal mining in the Gir forest region.
The apex court was hearing a plea of Jethwa’s father, filed through advocate Abhimanue Shrestha, challenging the high court order of September last year.
The bench made it clear that rejection of this petition is “not the affirmation of even the prima facie opinion recorded by the high court, which the high court will have to revisit during the hearing of the appeal.”
“All contentions available to both sides during the appeal must be considered on its own merits in accordance with the law,” it said.
The apex court said in the event of any subsequent events, which necessitate cancellation of the bail granted by the high court or modification of the condition thereof, it will be open for the petitioner to approach the high court by way of appropriate application which can be considered on its own merits.
Solanki, who has challenged the trial court’s verdict before the high court, had sought suspension of his sentence while his appeal was heard.
The high court took into consideration the fact that Solanki, who was a sitting MP of the BJP in 2010, was named as prime accused only in 2013 after the CBI took over the probe.
Neither the Special Investigation Team nor state CID-Crime had named him as an accused earlier, the high court had noted.
“We have no hesitation to arrive at the conclusion that the conviction under section 302 (murder) of IPC with the aid of section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) is less likely to be sustained. For all the above reasons, the sentence imposed by the CBI court needs to be suspended and the applicant needs to be granted bail, during the pendency of the appeal,” the high court had said.
