M A I N   N E W S

Gujarat HC orders fresh charge sheets

AHMEDABAD, Nov 16 (PTI) — The Gujarat High Court has asked the Sessions Court to file fresh charge sheets against 11 accused, including former Minister of State for Defence Harin Pathak and Gujarat Health Minister Ashok Bhatt, in a case pertaining to anti-reservation riots in 1985 in which a policeman was killed.

Mr Pathak and Mr Bhatt were among the accused formally charged in a court here in connection with the case.

Quashing the Sessions Court order to frame charges of murder, a single-member Bench of Justice A.K. Trivedi directed the city Sessions Court yesterday to hear the accused before framing the charges.

The order was issued by Justice Trivedi in response to a petition filed by Ganshyam Mehta and Mayur Dave, co-accused in the case.

The High Court also directed the Sessions Court to hear the case on November 21 after giving the accused a chance to make submissions and provide documents.

Following the framing of the charges by the Sessions Court here, Pathak and Bhatt resigned on moral grounds last Sunday.

The High Court also directed that the charges framed by the Additional Sessions Court in charge were not only contrary to law but also in violation of the directions given by the High Court.

The petition, which was filed by the co-accused in the High Court yesterday, was decided on a priority basis in the evening by admitting it earlier.