Chhattisgarh HC Overturns Acquittal, Sentences Amit Jogi to Life

Raipur: Amit Jogi, former MLA and son of late former chief minister Ajit Jogi, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ram Avtar Jaggi in 2003 by the Chhattisgarh high court.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Arvind Kumar Verma convicted him in the high-profile murder case on April two.

The decision was published on the Chhattisgarh High Court website on Monday.

The trial court convicted 28 defendants in the case in 2007 but acquitted Jogi due to lack of evidence.

The 23-year-old murder case was reopened after the Supreme Court directed the Chhattisgarh high court to decide the case on its merits, terming the charges as ‘serious’.

“We are of the opinion that the decision of the learned trial judge acquitting the accused Amit Jogi is manifestly illegal, wrong, perverse, contrary to the evidence available on record and does not have any concrete basis,” the high court bench said in its two April verdict while convicting Jogi on murder and conspiracy charges.

The court noted that although the other 28 defendants were convicted due to the same evidence, the acquittal of the alleged accomplice in the murder case was legally invalid.

The high court asked Jogi to surrender within three weeks.

The case relates to the incident in Raipur on June 4, 2003, in which NCP leader Jaggi, a close aide of former Union minister Vidya Charan Shukla, was shot dead in broad daylight.

The case has been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for investigation.

It was learned that 31 people were defendants in the case.

While the first instance court convicted 28 of the defendants, it acquitted Jogi due to lack of evidence.

The CBI filed a petition in the high court challenging the trial court’s acquittal.

However, the application was rejected on the grounds that it was late.

Satish Jaggi, son of the late NCP leader, took the legal fight to the Supreme Court, which led to the top court reopening the case in November last year.

Meanwhile, Jogi’s legal team has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court challenging the Supreme Court’s order.