RTI activist killing: Gujarat HC suspends life term for ex-MP

Amit Jethwa was gunned down outside the High Court in 2010

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday suspended the awarded to former BJP parliamentarian Dinu Solanki, convicted in an RTI activist murder case, and granted conditional bail to him.

In July 2019, he was sentenced to life by a special CBI court in Ahmedabad in the case of gunning down of RTI activist Amit Jethwa outside the High Court in 2010.

A Division Bench of the High Court held that the conviction following the trial by the special trial court was based on “circumstantial evidence” and prima facie was “erroneous and unsustainable.” The conviction should be suspended because it appeared unsustainable. “In totality, this court finds that on facts, the conviction recorded by the CBI court is prima facie, principally based on assumptions and presumptions and the same is unsustainable qua the applicant,” it said.