Guj BJP legislator gets life term in a murder case

Gujarat High Court on Friday handed over life-term to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Jairajsinh Jadeja, representing Gondal constituency in Saurashtra, in a case related to the killing of a person in 2004.

The bench of Justice Akil Kureshi and B N Biren Vaishnav handed over the life-sentence to Jadeja and two of his associates Amarjitsinh Jadeja and Mahenrasinh alias Bhagat Rana. The court has also ordered the three to surrender to police before September 30.

Jadeja could now be disqualified as a legislator in the wake of this sentence unless he gets relief from the Supreme Court going forward. Jadeja first became Gondal legislator on a BJP ticket in 1998 and then in 2002.
 
According to the details of the case available, Nilesh Raiyani and Jadeja were political rivals locked in a dispute over a 35-acre land parcel of erstwhile royal family of Gondal. The trouble began when a guy named Vikramsinh Rana, a close aide of Jadeja and former cop, was killed in 2003 over disputed land. The allegations were that the faction of Vinu Singhala, who also happened to be the district Yuva Morcha president, was involved in this murder. Later in 2004, Vinu Singhala too got murdered. It was alleged that Jadeja was involved in this murder. However, Jadeja was acquitted in the case.

Later on February 8, 2004, close aide of Vinu Singhala, Nilesh Raiyani and two of his aides were travelling by a car when Jadeja and his aides banged into their vehicle. After that Jadeja apparently came out of his vehicle and fired two shots at Nilesh. The other accused then began assaulting Nilesh with sharp weapons, leading to his death.

Initially, 16 persons were accused in the case and one Samirkhan Pathan was handed over life-term by the lower court while 15 others, including Jadeja was acquitted. Later, Pathan and the state government approached Gujarat High Court in 2011.

The Gujarat High Court on Friday handed over life sentence to Jairajsinh and two of his aides. They could now approach Supreme Court for further legal remedy going forward.