Gujarat High Court suspends life sentence of former BJP MP's nephew Shiva Solanki in 2010 RTI Activist's murder
The Gujarat High Court on Monday suspended the life sentence of Pratapbhai alias Shiva Solanki, nephew of former BJP MP Dinu Solanki. He was convicted of murdering RTI activist Amit Jethwa outside the Gujarat High Court premises in 2010 in conspiracy with six others including Dinu.
The two-judge bench of Justices S H Vora and Mauna Bhatt released Solanki on bail with the conditions that he continues to stay in Gujarat while his appeal is being heard, surrender his passport, mark his monthly presence at the police station, and appear in court for the hearing.
As per the prima facie, the court stated in its judgement that Shiva Solanki’s conviction by the CBI court is erroneous because there is a violation of all principles settled by the Supreme Court with regard to the circumstantial evidence and requirement for conviction.
Read Also: Jamia Nagar violence case: Delhi Police move HC challenging discharging of Sharjeel Imam, 10 others
In 2019, the CBI court in July 2019 sentenced seven people to life imprisonment and charged them under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also ordered them to pay a fine of Rs 15 lakh in a case of murder and criminal conspiracy.
On July 20, 2010, Amit Jethwa was shot dead outside the Gujarat High Court after he tried to reveal illegal mining activities that allegedly involved Dinu Solanki. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) took over the investigation after an FIR was filed against two unidentified assailants and issued a chargesheet.
Seven defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on June 7, 2019, by a judge after the High Court handed over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Probe (CBI) the investigation in September 2012.
Indian origin man from Italy arrested for posing as vice-president of India
Video of elderly saree clad women diving into Tamil Nadu river leaves Twitter users amazed | Watch
