Friends, Just a few minutes ago I went thru a news item “Ahmedabad police close to unravelling Amit Jethwa’s murder mystery” in DNA newspaper dated Monday, Aug 9, 2010 by Charul Shah. It quotes- "Jethwa's murder was a contract killing and the one who killed him and escaped from the spot have been identified. We are in the middle of investigations to find out the people who gave the contract," a cop told DNA. We would feel really happy to know of the truth behind the murder and would try in our own way to follow the investigation till the end but today only we from the National RTI Forum had long talks with a trusted friend and the public spirited advocate in Gujarat High Court. We also had talks with an ex MLA of that region who was quite close to Sri Jethwa. Both of them were unanimous about a few facts- 1. The murder case was registered in the police station by a police officer and hence was unnamed. 1. But the moment this news came to Sri Amit Jethwa’s father Sri Bhiku Jethwa he directly and immediately made a verbal and written complaint about the BJP MP Dinu Solanki being the suspect for this murder. To quote Sri Bhiku Jethwa- “I suspect Dinu Bhogha Solanki, the member of parliament from Junagadh is behind my son’s murder,” adding- “The MP had threatened to kill me and my son, as my son had filed many public interest litigations against him,” he said. 3. This was on 21st July 2010 4. Since then it is more than 15 days 5. Not once the accused Sri Dinu Solanki has even been asked by the Gujarat police or formally interrogated. 6. In any normal murder, if the slain person’s father had made such a clear accusation, the police would have immediately got such person in police custody for enquiry. 7. Here the accused MP was not even asked once. In such circumstances, it seems very natural for all the well-wishers of Sri Amit Jethwa to doubt the investigation done by the Gujarat Police. We from the National RTI Forum are eagerly waiting for the police investigation to get completed. But at the same time, we would also like this investigation to be completely fair and particularly the named accused to be properly investigated and questioned. We have also communicated with the DGP Gujarat and the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner stating them the same facts and asking them for a fair enquiry. Dr Nutan Thakur, Convener, National RTI Forum, Lucknow # 94155-34525
