Gujarat High Court Disposes Plea For Release Of Man Serving Life Sentence In Haren Pandya Murder Case After State Rejects Remission Application

The Gujarat High Court last week disposed of as infructuous the plea moved by Anas Abdul Rashid Machiswala–one of the 12 accused sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of former state home minister Haren Pandya–seeking a direction to be released from jail.

The high court did so in view of an August 21 order of the state government's home department which had rejected Machiswala's application requesting remission of sentence.

When the matter was listed in May this year, the Machiswala had contended that he had completed approximately 14 years jail time and his remission of sentence application was pending before the concerned authority.

A single judge bench of Justice Nirzar S Desai in its September 11 order took note of the State's submission regarding the decision by the home department on Machiswala's remission plea.

The court was informed that Machiswala was on parole leave and it was prayed that he be directed to surrender. Meanwhile Machiswala's counsel requested the high court to extend the parole leave for ten days to enable his client to challenge the home department's August order.

After hearing the submissions the high court said, “Considering the aforesaid request, the petition is disposed of, as having become infructuous in view of the order dated 21.08.2024. However, the petitioner's parole leave is extended for a period of ten days, from the date on which the petitioner is required to surrender, so as to enable the petitioner to challenge the order dated 21.08.2024 passed by the Home Department. Rule is discharged”.

Background

The case was jointly investigated and tried along with a case of attempt to murder of Jagdish Tiwari, a leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Ahmedabad, which occurred two weeks before the murder of former home minister Pandya in 2003. The trial court had found the twelve accused guilty in both the cases. The Gujarat High Court had set aside their conviction in the murder conspiracy case, though the conviction in the attempt to murder case was sustained.

In 2019 the Supreme Court had restored the conviction and sentence of twelve accused persons in the case in appeals filed by CBI and the Gujarat government challenging the acquittal of 12 persons facing charges of murdering former state Home Minister Haren Pandya in 2003.

Case Title: ANAS ABDUL RASHID MACHISWALA v/s STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS

LL Citation: 2024 livelaw (Guj) 132

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