The Supreme Court on October 12 dismissed a plea filed by Mohammed Asgar Ali, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, seeking premature release after the Gujarat government informed the Court that it had rejected his remission plea.

A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh declined to continue hearing the matter, observing that Ali could challenge the State government's decision before the Gujarat High Court.

The Gujarat High Court had, in July, directed the State government to decide Ali's remission plea within six months.

Haren Pandya was shot dead on March 26, 2003, near Ahmedabad's Law Garden while he was out on a morning walk. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the murder was committed to avenge the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

In June 2007, a trial court convicted 12 persons for Pandya's murder. However, the Gujarat High Court acquitted all the accused in 2011, observing that the investigation had been “botched” and “misdirected”.

In 2019, the Supreme Court restored the convictions and sentences of the accused in the murder case.