The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday sought remarks from the special judge presiding over the murder trial of RTI activist Amit Jethva, on the aspect of his security. Jethva was shot dead outside Gujarat High Court on July 20, 2010, for reportedly exposing illegal mining activities in Gir Forest by former BJP MP Dinu Bogha Solanki. The court has ordered the High Court’s registry to produce the opinion of the judge by October 27. Justice S H Vora directed the registry office to “call for para-wise remarks of the averments made in the present petition so far as it pertains to the security aspect of the concerned special CBI judge- K M Dave.” The order states that “Upon receipt of such remarks in a sealed cover, the Registrar General, in turn, after considering the remarks of concerned special CBI Judge - K M Dave, shall furnish his remarks.Such remarks shall be placed before this court.” Special Judge K M Dave had sought round the clock protection for him and his family citing the “sensitive” nature of the case. Justice Vora’s order has come on a petition moved by Jethva’s father Bhikhabhai who had approached the court after reports of special judge Dave seeking security appeared in the newspapers, and sought the court’s intervention in the matter. Sources in the CBI had said that on behalf of judge KM Dave, then principal sessions court judge A R Patel had written a letter to the CBI Director in June this year asking for the security cover. Bhikhabhai’s petition mentioned the various twists that the case witnessed with 105 out of a total of 195 witnesses turning hostile allegedly under pressure from Solanki, following which a retrial was ordered by the High Court. His petition, moved through lawyer Bhvyaraj K Gohil, stated “the reason and object behind directing retrial and affording complete protection to witnesses was to ensure a fair trial in its truest sense. Thus if witnesses are to be protected it goes without saying that the judicial officer who shall be presiding over the trial has to be protected all the more since the dispensation of justice is more his obligation than anyone else’s.” The case was first probed by the Ahmedabad Detection Crime Branch (DCB) which charge-sheeted six persons-Shiva Solanki, nephew of Dinu Solanki, Shailesh Pandya, Bahadursinh Vadher, Panchan G Desai, Sanjay Chauhan and Udaji Thakore. Solanki was given clean chit by the DCB following which Bhikhabhai moved the High Court for further probe. The high court had ordered a CBI probe and Solanki was arrested in 2013 from Delhi.
