RTI activist's murder: Ex-BJP MP, 6 others sentenced to life
Ahmedabad: A special CBI court Thursday sentenced former BJP MP Dinu Bogha Solanki and six others to life imprisonment for killing RTI activist Amit Jethwa in 2010 after he tried to expose illegal mining activities in the Gir forest region.
Special CBI Judge K M Dave also imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh each on Solanki and his nephew, also an accused in the case.
While pronouncing the verdict on Thursday, the court held Solanki, who was the Junagadh MP from 2009 to 2014, and his nephew, Shiva Solanki, guilty of murder and conspiracy.
The others who were convicted in the case are Shailesh Pandya, Bahadursinh Vadher, Panchan G Desai, Sanjay Chauhan and Udaji Thakore.
The court convicted all the seven accused for murder last Saturday.
Jethwa, a lawyer, was shot dead for exposing through RTI applications the illegal mining in and around the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in which Solanki was allegedly involved.
In 2010, Jethwa filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against the illegal mining in and around the Gir sanctuary, the only abode of Asiatic lions.
Solanki and his nephew were made respondents to the PIL, and Jethwa produced several documents showing their involvement in the illegal mining.
While the PIL was being heard, Jethwa was shot dead outside the Gujarat High Court here on July 20, 2010. Initially, Ahmedabad police's crime branch probed the case and gave a clean chit to Dinu Solanki.
Dissatisfied with the investigation, the high court handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2013.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against Solanki and six others in November 2013. Charges of murder and criminal conspiracy were framed against them in May 2016.
The court examined 196 witnesses during the first trial and as many as 105 of them turned hostile after being threatened by the accused.
The slain RTI activist's father, Bhikhabhai Jethwa, then moved the high court seeking a retrial. The high court ordered a fresh trial in 2017.
"Our judiciary takes time but it has finally delivered justice to our family... even a criminal like Solanki is brought to justice," Bhikhabhai Jethwa said after the court's verdict.
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We will move court again to resist voter deletions: Mamata
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the BJP and the Election Commission over voter deletions during the SIR exercise and said her party will move a court again to resist the removal of electors from the rolls.
Her comments came after nearly 91 lakh voters' names were deleted from the electoral rolls following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision in the state.
“You will not be able to defeat the TMC by deleting names. We will move a court again to resist the exclusion of names," Banerjee said while attacking her principal challenger BJP over the roll revision exercise.
Banerjee had in February argued in the Supreme Court as she sought an intervention in the SIR process.
The EC figures, which pushed the total deletion to over 90.83 lakh names from the original voter base of 7.66 crore in October 2025, showed that the proportion of removal of electors now remains at over 11.85 per cent.
Criticising the poll panel over the SIR process, she also said, "We will fight legally to get the names included on the list as per the Constitution. If people cannot cast their votes, what is the need to frame the tribunal? And then you are saying that the list has been frozen. What is this? We will challenge it and try to understand it."
Addressing a poll rally at Arambagh in Hooghly district, the TMC supremo accused the saffron party of trying to manipulate the electoral rolls and offering money to woo voters.
Banerjee also charged the Election Commission with intimidating people over the phone.
“It (EC) is working at the behest of the BJP. It is calling people over the telephone to threaten and intimidate them,” she claimed.
Later, while speaking at a rally in Balagarh in the same district, Banerjee warned that voting for the BJP would effectively mean "giving up fish, meat, and speaking in Bengali".
“People are not allowed to eat eggs, fish, or meat in the BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra. The same will happen here if the BJP comes to power," Banerjee claimed.
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