Gujarat: Prime accused in Haren Pandya case sent to jail

Asgar Ali was the prime accused and the sharp shooter who was found guilty of pulling the trigger on Pandya.

Advocate Illiyas Khan, representing Ali said, “The court of Judge MK Dave remanded him in judicial custody, implying that his sentence of life imprisonment in the Haren Pandya murder case will be executed hereon. He was at a Telangana jail earlier in relation to a murder case.”

The apex court on July 5 restored the conviction of 12 persons who were convicted by the special POTA court for murdering Pandya in 2003. The POTA court conviction had been challenged in the Gujarat High Court, which acquitted them.

Of the 12 convicts, three have already undergone their sentences, as stated by the Gujarat High Court in its order. The apex court did not interfere with it.

Of the remaining nine, the Central Bureau of Investigation had moved the special POTA court for issuance of arrest warrant on July 20 for eight of the convicted persons as they were neither in judicial nor police custody. As advocate Khan explained at the time, “Whenever a judgment is pronounced, there is a timeframe mentioned within which the convicts have to turn up. The timeframe was not mentioned by the SC in its order. As the Gujarat HC had acquitted all, they were not in custody.”

The POTA court granted CBI the warrant, following which the eight convicts surrendered before the court on July 22.

As Asgar Ali was lodged in a Telangana jail in a separate matter, the CBI sought his transfer. Ali was transferred Thursday, presented in court and sent to judicial custody right away.