“I believe Ali, who was part of the conspiracy and took my husband’s life, should not be freed. He is a sharpshooter and can take anyone else’s life for money. Releasing him will only embolden him and others to commit more such crimes,” Jagruti told The Indian Express. “Apart from Mufti Sufiyan, there are Rasool Khan ‘Parti’ and Sohail Khan who are absconding.”

Haren Pandya, a former Minister of State for Revenue in the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in Gujarat, was shot dead while out on a morning walk, sending shock waves through the state.

Mufti Sufiyan ‘Patangiya’, a cleric in Ahmedabad, is suspected to have fled the country. He is accused of hatching the plot to kill Pandya, and “preparing” Ali and the others for it.

Ali’s lawyer, who didn’t want to be named, told The Indian Express: “We have sought remission on the ground that he has spent (more than) 14 years in jail and can get benefit of remission. He is entitled to it. The state government can take a decision as it is empowered… It has the option to either grant the remission or to reject it.”

Ali, who was in his 20s when held for the murder, is a native of Telangana.

Justice M R Mengdey of the High Court asked the government to decide on Ali’s remission application in an order dated June 17, saying: “From the jail remarks submitted on record, it appears that the process for consideration of the case of the petitioner for grant of remission is underway and the opinion from the Advisory Committee has also been called for, which has been received and the same shall be put up before the concerned authority in the near future. Having regard to these aspects, the concerned authority shall take an appropriate decision, in accordance with law, on the application submitted by the petitioner for grant of remission, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of 6 months from the date of receipt of the order.”

In-charge Principal Secretary (Home) Sanjeev Kumar could not be reached for comment. The probe into Pandya’s murder was handed over to the CBI after family members raised questions over police investigation. The CBI clubbed the case with an attempted murder, of VHP leader Jagdish Tiwari, just 15 days earlier, in Bapunagar area of Ahmedabad, in which Ali was also an accused.

Both cases were seen as reprisals for the 2002 Gujarat riots.

In 2007, a special CBI court convicted 12 persons in the case, including Ali, who was awarded life imprisonment. In 2011, the High Court acquitted all of them, citing a “botched” investigation.

The CBI and the state government appealed against the order, and the SC overturned the HC order in 2019. It upheld the trial court’s judgment convicting the 12.