Top court to hear Amit Jogi’s plea against conviction in 2003 murder case
Jogi filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the top court saying that the CBI’s appeal was admitted by the Chhattisgarh High Court without valid reasoning. The SC will hear the SLP on Monday.
Amit Jogi, son of the late Ajit Jogi, the first chief minister of Chhattisgarh, has moved the Supreme Court saying he was not heard in a 23-year-old murder case in which he was convicted three days ago.
He has also claimed that he was given just 24 hours to read 11,000 pages filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.
Jogi filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the top court saying that the CBI’s appeal was admitted by the Chhattisgarh High Court without valid reasoning. The SC will hear the SLP on Monday.
The Chhattisgarh High Court on Thursday convicted Jogi in a case pertaining to the murder of Ram Avtar Jaggi, a political rival of his father’s, more than two decades ago. Jogi was acquitted by the trial court in 2007, but the acquittal was overturned by the High Court.
The HC took up CBI’s appeal against the acquittal on March 24, and directed all parties to appear the next day. On March 25, Jogi sought time to obtain instructions, and requested the files. The court directed the CBI to supply the files, but on the same day proceeded to allow the CBI’s application and granted leave to appeal against the 2007 acquittal. The final hearing was fixed for April 1.
The 11,000 pages were supplied to Jogi on March 27. On March 30, an SLP was filed in the SC challenging the HC’s March 25 order granting leave. Jogi has said in his petition that this was done “without even providing the paper books of the case and affording a fair opportunity” to address the leave question, which he stated was the Supreme Court’s direction.
“How can someone be expected to read 11,000 pages in a day? I’ve been travelling from Delhi to meet my counsel and then to Chattisgarh,” Jogi told The Indian Express on Sunday.
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The case stems from the 2003 murder of Jaggi in Raipur. Jaggi had been in the process of organising a massive political rally for the NCP to be attended by Sharad Pawar. He was returning from a meeting held to discuss details of the rally when a single bullet was fired at him, killing him near Jaistamb Chowk on June 4, 2003.
Jogi’s acquittal in 2007 remained undisturbed for almost 17 years. In April 2024, the Chhattisgarh HC dismissed appeals filed by the convicted co‑accused, affirming their convictions, but left Jogi’s acquittal intact. The turning point came on November 6 last year when the SC allowed a SLP filed by the CBI against an earlier HC order that had rejected, on the ground of delay, the CBI’s 2011 application for leave to appeal against Jogi’s acquittal.
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
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