Soon after the acquittal of Sadhvi Pragya Singh in the Sunil Joshi murder case, the prosecution has written to the Madhya Pradesh government that ‘there is no ground for appeal’. Speaking to The Indian Express, government pleader Girish Mungi said, “There is no direct or circumstantial evidence. All witnesses have turned hostile. I have informed the government that there is no ground for appeal.”
On December 29, 2007, Joshi was found dead near his one-room hideout in Dewas in the Chuna Khadan locality. During this time, Joshi was on the run for his alleged role in the double murder of a tribal Congress leader and his son.
Sadhvi along with seven other accused were acquitted by the First Additional Sessions Judge, Dewas, earlier this month. Also the court pardoned Dilip Jagtap whose plea for becoming an approver had been accepted by the NIA’s Special Court in Bhopal.
Joshi’s sister-in-law Shailaja questioned Sadhvi’s acquittal a day after the verdict came out. She also indicated that the family was indifferent to the verdict or to an appeal.
As per records, the probe into the murder of Joshi was linked with a larger plot of terror by alleged Hindu extremists and the case took several twists and turns which prompted the judge to remark, “The analysis of entire evidence reveals that either out of prejudice or some unknown reasons the agencies did not seriously investigate the case and collected weak and mutually contradictory evidence that is not enough to prove the charges. The contrary nature of evidence has cast a serious doubt over the prosecution story.’’
The judge had also highlighted certain glaring contradictions. Even after 2 years of Joshi’s murder, the MP police was not able to file a closure report. In 2010, ATS in Rajasthan (under the Congress regime) made the first arrest in the case, that of Harshad Solanki. The arrest was made in connection with the Ajmer blast and was later brought to Dewas on transit demand.
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As per Dewas police Solanki was also accused in Gujarat’s Best Bakery case, who shot Joshi. According to the chargesheet filed by the police in the Dewas court in February 2011, Sadhvi was a conspirator and both Solanki and Ramesh on whose two-wheeler he was riding pillion at the time of murder had confessed to the crime.
In 2011, NIA took over the investigation. The agency claimed that Rajendra Chaudhary alias Pehelwan who was accused in the Samjhauta train blast case, pulled the trigger and his friend Lokesh Sharma accompanied him when Joshi was killed.
