Ex-minister seeks fresh probe into Pandya murder case

Taking the lead on Tuesday was another former MoS (Home) Gordhan Zadafia who demanded a probe to unravel the larger conspiracy behind the murder.
The High Court had come down hard on the investigations by the CBI which was entrusted the probe two days after the murder by the then Union home minister, L K Advani.

Zadafia was a minister in the Modi government till 2002 but fell out with Chief Minister Narendra Modi. He quit the party a few years back and formed his own political outfit the Mahagujarat Janata Party.

Zadaphia said a reinvestigation was necessary to find out the real conspiracy as Pandya was emerging as a counter force to Modi in the Gujarat BJP.

“This was one incident where a 42-year-old emerging leader was killed when its own government was in power and the investigations were conducted by the CBI, which was directly under the deputy prime minister who was a father figure for him,” Zadaphia said.

“While the CBI was helped by the government which was ruled by his own party, still the accused were relieved from the charges framed under IPC 302 (murder). Now we are once again faced with the question who killed Pandya? Who conspired to kill him and why?” he added. Coming down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Zadaphia said while the party could hold Parliament to ransom to save its MoS home Amit Shah who is involved in criminal cases, the same party not only failed to save the life of its another leader, but also lost the will to nab his killers.

He demanded the state government to conduct a fresh probe into the murder of Pandya, either by the CBI or seek constitution of a special investigation team of fair police officials by the Supreme Court.

The father of Haren Pandya, Vitthalbhai Pandya, had been alleging that his son was killed under a political conspiracy and also alleged that the Central agency did not probe into his murder.

 A fierce Keshubhai Patel loyalist, Pandya had not only rubbed Modi the wrong way politically, but had also appeared before the citizen’s tribunal probing the 2002 Gujarat riot, which many believe had done him in.