TNN, Nov 22, 2010,
AHMEDABAD: The city crime branch has finally got custody of Sailesh Pandya, the man who had shot dead RTI and environment activist Amit Jethava in July outside the Gujarat High Court. During the initial rounds of questioning, Pandya told the police that he had never met BJP MP Dinu Solanki.
Jethava's family members had blamed the MP for the killing. Solanki's name was doing the rounds after his nephew Shiva Solanki was arrested by police as the main conspirator. However, Pandya has given a new twist to the tale by claiming that he had never met Dinu. Pandya was recently arrested by Mumbai police.
Pandya has now told the city police that on the day of murder, his friend Udaji Thakore was driving the bike. Thakore has already been arrested. The duo had driven up to Jethava and had shot him from point-blank range the moment he came out of his office near the HC.
Police constable Bahadursinh Vadher, who has been arrested in this case, had paid Rs 11 lakh to Pandya for the killing. "Pandya has claimed that though the contract for killing Jethava was fixed at Rs 10 lakh, an extra Rs 1 lakh was paid to him as reward after completion of the assignment. We are now tracing the sum," said police investigators.
Pandya told the investigators that he had fled to Rajasthan after getting the money. "From Rajasthan, Pandya had gone to Mumbai and had assumed a new identity. It was at this juncture, he was nabbed by the Mumbai crime branch officials, following a tip-off. The country-made pistol used to kill Jethava was recovered from him," said a senior police official investigating the case.
"Though Pandya claims that he never met Dinu or Shiva. He has also claimed that constable Vadher told him that the killing was ordered by Shiva," the official stated.
Pandya was produced before a metropolitan magistrate on Sunday. The court sent Pandya to remand till November 25.
.JPG)
.JPG)
