Supreme Court Suspends Sentence Of 2 Convicts In 2003 Murder Case Of Chhattisgarh NCP Leader Ram Avatar Jaggi

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 26) suspended the life imprisonment of two persons who were convicted for the murder of Nationalist Congress party leader Ram Avatar Jaggi in Chhattisgarh in 2003.

The Court suspended the sentence of convicts Feroz Sidhique and Abhay Goel and ordered that they be released on bail during the pendency of the appeals on terms and conditions to be fixed by the trial Court.

The Court however refused to suspend the sentence of another convict named Yahya Dhebar. The applications filed by other convicts seeking suspension of their sentence will be heard on December 9. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar heard the matter. Senior Advocates Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Siddharth Agarwal, S Nagamuthu etc appeared for some of the applicants.

In April this year, the Chhattisgarh High Court upheld the conviction and life imprisonment sentences of 28 individuals in the case.

Jaggi, the treasurer of the NCP, was fatally shot on June 4, 2003 while driving. The murder stirred political turmoil just prior to the 2003 assembly elections in the state.

The High Court held that the crime was an "off shoot of political rivalry" between the two highly ambitious political leaders of the Congress party out of which one had formed a new party i.e. NCP in the State of Chhattisgarh. 

"The attempt of the then sitting Chief Minister (Ajit Jogi) was to restrain the NCP from coming into power. Though the then Chief Minister was not made an accused in this case, the learned trial Court has opined that the convicted accused/appellants in order to show devotion towards their master i.e. the then sitting Chief Minister, had conspired and committed the crime in question without the information of the Chief Minister...The deceased being the Treasurer of the NCP was picked up to be eliminated as even after threats being given, he did not stop his political campaign," the High Court noted.

Case : Surya Kant v. State of Chhattisgarh | SLP(Crl) NO. 6469/2024 and connected cases