New Delhi, 23 April (H.S.): The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a life‑imprisonment sentence awarded to Amit Jogi, the son of former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, in the 2003 murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ram Avatar Jaggi. A bench headed by Justice Vikram Nath passed the interim order while hearing a special leave petition filed by Amit Jogi challenging the Chhattisgarh High Court’s verdict.

Amit Jogi had moved the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision to impose life imprisonment, which overturned his earlier acquittal by the trial court. Through his senior counsel, Kapil Sibal and Mukul Rohatgi, he argued that the High Court had passed the impugned order without giving him a proper opportunity to present his case, describing the process as procedurally unfair.

The case dates back to June 4, 2003, when Ram Avatar Jaggi, then an NCP leader, was shot dead while travelling in his car in Chhattisgarh. In 2007, the trial court acquitted Amit Jogi while convicting other co‑accused. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), along with the complainant Satish Jaggi, challenged the acquittal in the High Court, but in 2011 the Chhattisgarh High Court had dismissed the CBI’s plea, holding that the agency’s challenge was not maintainable.

However, in 2025, the Supreme Court disagreed, calling for the CBI’s appeal to be decided on the merits. On a fresh hearing, the High Court reversed its earlier stance, set aside the trial court’s acquittal, and held Amit Jogi to be the mastermind behind the murder, awarding him life imprisonment. The stay order by the Supreme Court now puts that sentence on hold as the top court examines the legal and factual basis of the High Court’s decision, keeping the criminal‑procedural aspect of the decades‑old Jaggi murder saga in the judicial spotlight.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar