After Advani's assurance, Pandya's wife to skip Modi fast

Jagruti Pandya, wife of slain former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Haren Pandya, has decided not to go to the venue of Chief Minister Narendra Modi's fast -- to hand over a memorandum seeking justice for her husband -- after speaking to senior party leader L K Advani over phone on Saturday.

Advani assured Jagruti that he would support her efforts to get justice for her late husband. "Jagruti wanted to meet me with regard to her husband's killing," Advani told reporters outside the GU convention centre where the Gujarat chief minister is on a three-day fast.

"I have sent her a massage and asked her to come to Delhi and meet me, and I will definitely help her. I am also interested in getting justice for her," Advani said. Jagruti told PTI, "I had planned to give a memorandum to Advani and Modi at the fast venue on Saturday but after receiving assurance from Advaniji, I decided not to go." She said after garlanding her husband's statue at Nehru Nagar on Saturday, she was requested by the police not to go to the fast venue.

Pandya, a former minister of state for home in the BJP government and once a close associate of Narendra Modi, was shot dead on March 26, 2003, near Law Garden area of the city. The Central Bureau of Investigation concluded that Pandya was murdered to avenge the 2002 communal riots. The Gujarat high court, on August 29, dropped charges of murder against 12 persons convicted for assassination of Haren Pandya by the trial court, while upholding conviction for charges of criminal conspiracy and offences under POTA.

Subsequently, Jagruti made an appeal to Advani and Modi to help her get justice. She also sought further investigation into her husband's death. Jagruti had said that the high court's judgement proved that the real killers were still not caught.