The Gujarat High Court on Thursday suspended the life sentence 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.

In July 2019, the life-term was awarded to Mr. Solanki and six others, including his nephew, after the CBI court found them guilty under IPC Sections 302 for murder, 201 for causing disappearance of evidence of offence and 120B for criminal conspiracy.

Father’s plea

The case was handed over to the CBI based on a plea of Jethwa’s father, who alleged that Mr. Solanki and his family had got his son killed after they were exposed in an alleged scam of illegal mining in the Gir forest, abode of the Asiatic lions.

Jethwa was fighting against mining activities in and around Gir forest and had filed a petition in the High Court.

Mr. Solanki, a veteran leader from Saurashtra region, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Junagadh in 2009. Earlier, since 1998, he was member of the Assembly from Kodinar.

His name figured in the murder case after the slain activist’s father approached the High Court seeking a CBI probe into the case, naming Mr. Solanki as the prime accused in the murder. Subsequently, the High Court ordered a CBI probe.