Haren Pandya was the Home Minister of the Gujarat State in India. He was murdered in 2003 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, when he was sitting in his car (place of his murder is contentious, [1] he could not have been shot in his car , the hindu ) after a morning walk in the Law Garden area in ahmedabad.
He represented the Ellis Bridge constituency of Ahmedabad City as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Legislator. He was a member of the RSS from his early age and was also a Municipal Councilor from the Paldi Area of Ahmedabad City. Pandya was a strong supporter of Keshubhai Patel and a fierce opponent of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and possibly that was the reason he was denied BJP ticket in the Gujarat Assembly Elections of 2002. It is said that he had also in a cabinet meeting advocated that the bodies of the victims of Godhra carnage not be brought to Ahmedabad because that would arouse passion. But he was shouted down at the meeting by some ministers [2]
US Astronaut Sunita Williams, who is the only woman to have spent six months in space, is Haren Pandya's cousin.
A lot of controversy followed his murder and top BJP Leaders such as Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the then Deputy Prime Minister of India Lal Krishna Advani were under intense criticism from within the Sangh Pariwar and General Public for sidelining Haren Pandya and not providing him proper security despite threats to his life and his request for security cover. Pandya and Bhatt claim to know what happened in the meeting on February 27, 2002 at the Modi's residence. Pandya had a life threat from the same time. His close associate IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt had discussed about the meeting with him. Bhatt had ever alerted Pandya about a threat to his life. Bhatt even spoke out about Pandya to SIT probing Godhra riots.[3]
On August 29, 2011 all the 12 people accused of murdering Pandya were acquitted of the murder charges by the Gujarat high court, but other charges including criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder were retained.[4][5]