Raipur
Yahya Dhebar, one of the accused in the murder case of NCP leader Ram Avatar Jaggi, surrendered before the Raipur court. This follows the surrender of shooter Chiman Singh and Vinod Rathore on April 15. The Chhattisgarh High Court had previously dismissed the appeal of 27 accused in the Jaggi murder case, upholding the lower court’s decision of life imprisonment. Five individuals associated with the case had sought surrender from the Supreme Court.
Among them, the court granted an additional three weeks to five accused, including former Crime Branch in-charge Arsie Trivedi, former Moudhapara Police Station in-charge V.K. Pandey, Kotwali CSP Amarik Singh Gill, and Suryakant Tiwari. Mayor Aijaz Dhebar’s brother Yahya Dhebar was also included, and he surrendered in court today. Shooter Chiman Singh and Vinod Rathore had surrendered on April 15. The murder, which occurred 21 years ago by gunfire, took place on June 4, 2003, when NCP leader Ram Avatar Jaggi was shot dead.
Thirty-one individuals were accused in this case, of which Balu Pathak and Surendra Singh became government witnesses. Amit Jogi was acquitted, leaving 28 individuals sentenced. Ram Avatar Jaggi’s son Satish Jaggi appealed against Amit Jogi’s acquittal in the Supreme Court. Ram Avatar Jaggi, with a business background, was counted among the country’s top leaders and was closely associated with former Central Minister Vidya Charan Shukla.
When Shukla joined NCP after leaving Congress, Jaggi followed suit and was appointed as the treasurer of NCP in Chhattisgarh by Vidya Charan. The guilty parties in the Jaggi murder case include Abhay Goyal, Yahya Dhebar, V.K. Pandey, Firoz Siddiqui, Rakesh Chandra Trivedi, Avneesh Singh Lallan, Suryakant Tiwari, Amarik Singh Gill, Chiman Singh, Sunil Gupta, Raju Bhadauria, Anil Pachauri, Ravindra Singh, Ravi Singh, Lalla Bhadauria, Dharmendra, Satyendra Singh, Shivendra Singh Parihar, Vinod Singh Rathore, Sanjay Singh Kushwaha, Rakesh Kumar Sharma, (late) Vikram Sharma, Jabavant, and Vishwanath Rajbhar. Before Jaggi’s murder, the political landscape in the state saw Congress with a majority in the legislature.
Vidya Charan Shukla’s name was prominent in the race for the Chief Minister’s post from Congress, but unexpectedly, Ajit Jogi became the Chief Minister. This caused discontent among party members, leading Vidya Charan to leave Congress and join NCP a few months before the November 2003 Legislative Assembly elections. The growing influence of NCP raised concerns for Congress about losing power, especially with a big NCP rally scheduled just days before Jaggi’s murder, where many prominent leaders of the party, including Sharad Pawar, were to attend.
