Supreme Court
NEW DELHI: Murder case of a Nationalist Congress Party functionary of Chhattisgarh will again haunt Amit Jogi, son of former chief minister Ajit Jogi, as Supreme Court on Thursday revived the case against him, 18 years after his acquittal.The murder of NCP’s Ramavatar Jaggi took place in 2003 and it was alleged that the conspiracy was hatched at the CM’s residence as his father was governing the state at that time. The case was transferred to CBI and trial court acquitted him in 2007 while convicting 20 other accused. The state, thereafter, filed the appeal in HC. CBI also moved HC but after a delay of almost 1,400 days, challenging his acquittal.But HC rejected the plea of state govt as well as CBI on different grounds, virtually bringing the case against Jogi to an end. Rejecting the appeal of state, HC had said that the case was being probed by the central agency and the state had no locus in appeal. It also said that the appeal by CBI was filed by inordinate delay of 1,373 days and refused to condone the delay. The state and CBI thereafter moved SC.Allowing the plea of CBI, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta said the case was sensitive and HC should have taken a more liberal and pragmatic approach in dealing with CBI’s applicatio. Court condoned the delay, paving way for HC to examine appeal against Jogi’s acquittal in 2007.CBI urged that the delay was bona fide; and as it was under an impression that the state had filed an appeal against the acquittal and it was not considered necessary for CBI to challenge the acquittal. It said the agency moved the HC when locus of the state to file the leave to appeal was questioned.Allowing CBI’s plea, the bench said, “Though CBI filed an application seeking leave to appeal after a significant delay of 1,373 days, it is equally true that the charges against the respondent, Amit Jogi, were grave, involving conspiracy to murder a member of a rival political party. The judgment of acquittal was under challenge at the instance of the state govt and the de-facto complainant and thus, the proceedings were still alive. Therefore, we are of the opinion that HC ought to have adopted a more liberal and pragmatic approach in dealing with CBI’s application seeking condonation of delay and should have examined application seeking leave to appeal applicable on its merits”.”We may hasten to add that we are not giving any imprimatur to the explanation offered by CBI in its application for condonation of delay, but our objective is to ensure that the case involving such grave allegations should not be thrown out on mere technicalities,” it said. The court remitted the matter to HC for fresh consideration of the application for grant of leave to appeal filed by CBI, on merit.
