Amit Jogi questions ‘delay’ in CBI appeal (Second Lead)

May 4th, 2011 - 12:38 am ICT by IANS  

Bharatiya Janata Party Raipur, May 3 (IANS) Amit Jogi, son of Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, Tuesday said it was “shocking” that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an appeal against his acquittal in a murder case after a delay of four years.

“The delay in filing appeal in the case is shocking. It should have been made within 90 days of the trial court verdict,” Amit Jogi, who is busy campaigning for the Congress party for the May 8 byelection from the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency, told IANS on phone.

The CBI Tuesday filed the appeal in the Chhattisgarh High Court in Bilaspur, where the junior Jogi is a practicing lawyer, opposing his acquittal in the case relating to the murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ramavatar Jaggi in 2003, official sources said.

However, CBI counsel Gautam Bhaduri said: “There is no delay on part of the CBI to initiate the appeal process. We moved the high court immediately after we got the approval from the central government.”

“The CBI has enough evidence to prove Amit Jogi’s involvement in the murder case,” he added.

The appeal comes four years after a district and sessions court acquitted Amit Jogi, 34, in the case. A total of 28 of the 29 people accused in the case were convicted, and 19 of them were awarded life sentences.

Four close aides of the Jogi family and three policemen, including a city superintendent of police who was jailed for five years, were among those convicted.

Asked whether he saw a political conspiracy behind the CBI’s decision, he said: “The question should be asked as to why the appeal was not filed before, and why it is being done now.”

Jaggi, treasurer of the NCP’s state unit, was shot dead in the heart of Raipur June 4, 2003, when Ajit Jogi was the chief minister. Ajit and Amit Jogi were named in the first information report (FIR) that was filed just hours after the sensational killing.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after coming to power in December 2003, handed over the case to the CBI, which named Amit as the main accused.

Amit Jogi had spent about 10 months in Raipur central jail after being arrested in New Delhi by the investigating agency in June 2005.

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