Chhattisgarh High Court convicts Amit Jogi in 2003 NCP leader murder case

The Chhattisgarh High Court on Thursday (April 2, 2026) convicted Amit Jogi – the son of former Chief Minister, the late Ajit Jogi – in a 2003 murder case, giving him three weeks to surrender.

The case pertains to the killing of businessman-politician Ramavatar Jaggi in Raipur at a time when Ajit Jogi was the sitting Chief Minister of the State. In 2007, 28 people were convicted in the case by a special CBI court, but Mr. Amit Jogi was acquitted as he was given the benefit of the doubt.

In 2011, the CBI approached the High Court challenging the acquittal, but the appeal was rejected by the HC on grounds of delay. The investigating agency then moved the Supreme Court, which referred the case back to the High Court last November and including the argument on Thursday, there were six to seven hearings on the matter, maintained sources.

Following the verdict, Mr. Amit Jogi said it was grave injustice done to him.

“Today, the Honorable High Court allowed the CBI’s appeal against me in a mere 40 minutes—without granting me an opportunity to be heard. I regret that an individual whom the court had previously acquitted has now been convicted without being granted a single opportunity for a hearing. This is unprecedented. The court has granted me a period of three weeks to surrender. I feel that a grave injustice has been done to me. I have full faith and confidence that I will certainly receive justice from the Supreme Court,” he wrote on X.

Satish Jaggi, Ramavatar Jaggi’s son hailed the verdict as a triumph for truth and added that his family’s twenty-year struggle had finally borne fruit.

“I express my deepest gratitude to the hundreds of thousands of people who stood by me—and by the cause of justice—throughout this entire journey.Ultimately, the prime accused, Amit Jogi, will be sent to jail. While the Jaggi family cannot exactly rejoice over this—for I have lost a father—justice has indeed prevailed. For this outcome, I express my sincere gratitude to the Honorable Court, the CBI, and everyone involved,” he told journalists.

Ramavatar Jaggi’s murder on June 4, 2003 was a sensational episode ahead of the Assembly polls scheduled later that year. Jaggi was the treasurer of the Nationalist Congress Party that was led by the late Vidya Charan Shukla in the State and his family had alleged that the emergence of NCP in the political fray posed a major challenge to the incumbent Congress.