Haren Pandya murder: eight convicts surrender, jailed

Eight persons whose acquittals in Haren Pandya murder case were reversed by the Supreme Court earlier this month surrendered on Monday before a special court here from where they were sent to judicial custody at Sabarmati Central Jail.

Another convict Asgar Ali, who belongs to Hyderabad, is yet to surrender. These nine have been convicted for the murder of Pandya and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The convicts Anas Machiswala, Mohammed Farukh, Mohamed Yunu Sareshwala, Rehan Puthawala, Kalim Ahmed, Mohammed Riaz alias Goru, Parvez Sheikh and Parvez Khan Pathan, all residents of Ahmedabad, appeared before the in-charge principal sessions judge M C Tyagi and were taken into custody.

"On Friday, the CBI had filed an application in the court along with the copy of the judgement and requested summons to be issued against the convicts. Accordingly, the court issues summons to these convicts for surrendering themselves," said advocate Iliyas Pathan who represents many of these convicts.

CBI sources said that the ninth convict Asgar Ali, who is lodged at a Hyderabad jail, will also be brought here on a transfer warrant.

The Supreme Court on July 5 upturned the acquittal order of Gujarat High Court and restored the order pronounced by the trial court which found 12 persons guilty of murdering the former minister of state for home Haren Pandya.

The apex court refused to interfere with the sentencing of three other convicts identified as Mohamed Shafiuddin, Shahnawaz Gandhi and Mohamed Abdul Rauf who had already served the sentence.

Pandya was the home minister in the then Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government when he was shot dead near Law Garden during his morning walk on March 26, 2003. In 2007, a special Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002, (POTA) court on sentenced 12 people to life imprisonment.