A special NIA court on Tuesday transferred the Sunil Joshi murder case back to the sessions court in Dewas, which will now hold this peculiar trial which will be based on a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet that identify, except Sadhvi Pragya Singh, different sets of accused.
Joshi was considered an important link to the alleged acts of saffron terror in the country and was shot dead in December 2007 when he was walking back to his hideout in Chuna Khadan locality in Dewas town.
The NIA, which had taken over the investigation three years ago when the UPA was in power, filed the supplementary chargesheet on August 19 in Bhopal’s special court, ruling out any larger conspiracy and reducing the case to a murder alleging that “licentious advances” made by Joshi towards Pragya Singh had angered her accomplices.
The NIA counsel Tuesday argued that no case could be made under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, a scheduled offence under the NIA Act, and, therefore, the case be transferred back to the Dewas court where the trial was originally scheduled. While agreeing with the plea, the special court fixed September 16 as the next date when the matter will be heard in the Dewas court.
The final report submitted by the NIA with the charge-sheet, a copy of which was accessed by The Indian Express, has almost negated the investigation by the MP police by coming out with a separate conspiracy and by insisting that an eyewitness and an important witness to the murder had retracted their statements.
According to the first chargesheet, Ramesh Sharma alias Ramia was the sole eyewitness to the shooting by Harshad Solanki. The NIA says he had given the statement “under pressure” and now denies that Harshad fired at Joshi. One Govind Joshi, who the first chargesheet says was a witness to the conspiracy meeting, has denied it.
The Dewas Police had identified Harshad Solanki as the accused who pulled the trigger while the NIA has claimed Lokesh Sharma and Rajendra Chaudhary were the actual killers.
“Lokesh and Rajendra led the investigation team to the scene of crime and vividly described and reconstructed the crime scene and the sequence of commission of crime and how they escaped,” the final report says, adding that Chaudhary fired at Joshi while riding pillion on a bike driven by Lokesh. The final report says Lokesh and Rajendra met Pragya a couple of days after the murder at a flat near Gangawal Bus Stand, Indore, where she “congratulated them for the task carried out”.
The final report says evidence could not be collected to establish the roles of Anandraj Kataria, Vasudev Parmar, Harshad Solanki and Ramcharan Patel, all of whom were chargesheeted by the Dewas Police. The only common point in the chargesheets is that Pragya Singh was involved in the conspiracy and destruction of evidence. The NIA has charge-sheeted Lokesh Sharma, Rajendra Chaudhary and Jitendra Sharma while deciding not to chargesheet Balbir Singh and Dilip Jagtap (who has turned approver).
Indian Express | September 3, 2014
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