The Chhattisgarh High Court overturned a lower court’s acquittal of Amit Jogi, son of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, in the 2003 murder of NCP leader Ramavatar Jaggi.

BILASPUR, April 2, 2026 — The Chhattisgarh High Court has convicted Amit Jogi, son of the state’s first Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, for his involvement in the 2003 murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ramavatar Jaggi. The ruling sets aside a 2007 lower court decision that had acquitted the junior Jogi while sentencing 28 others to life imprisonment.

The division bench delivered the judgment after years of legal back-and-forth that defined the early political landscape of the young state. Ramavatar Jaggi, then the treasurer of the state NCP unit, was shot dead in Raipur on June 4, 2003. The assassination occurred just months before the state’s first assembly elections, sending shockwaves through a political environment already tightened by the rivalry between the Congress and the newly formed NCP.

Investigators originally alleged that the killing was a political conspiracy intended to eliminate a key opponent. While the trial court in 2007 found the majority of the accused guilty—including police officers and aides—it spared Amit Jogi, citing a lack of evidence. The Jaggi family didn’t buy it. They’ve spent more than two decades petitioning higher courts to reconsider the evidence linking the Chief Minister’s son to the plot.

The High Court’s decision to convict Jogi now hinges on a re-evaluation of the conspiracy charges. Court documents indicate that the bench found sufficient grounds to conclude that the crime wasn’t a random act of violence by the 28 previously convicted individuals, but a coordinated effort that involved Jogi at a planning level. The 2007 acquittal was described by the prosecution as a failure to connect the dots that were staring the court in the face.

The 2003 murder remains one of the most high-profile criminal cases in Chhattisgarh’s history. At the time, Ajit Jogi’s administration faced intense scrutiny, and the CBI was eventually brought in to lead the probe. The federal agency’s findings pointed to a deep-seated conspiracy involving state machinery and private individuals.

“We have waited twenty-three years for this day,” said Satish Jaggi, the son of the slain leader, who has been the face of the legal battle since his father’s death. He maintained that the acquittal of the “main mastermind” in 2007 had left a hole in the justice system that only this conviction could fill. The Jaggi family’s persistence turned a cold case into a recurring political nightmare for the Jogi family.

Amit Jogi, who currently leads the Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J), has consistently denied the charges, labeling them as politically motivated fabrications by his father’s rivals. His legal team is expected to challenge the High Court’s conviction in the Supreme Court. The immediate question is whether Jogi will be taken into custody following the reversal of his acquittal.

The conviction carries heavy weight for the state’s political future. Amit Jogi has been the primary torchbearer for his father’s legacy since Ajit Jogi’s death in 2020. With this ruling, his ability to contest future elections and lead his party hangs by a thread. Under the Representation of the People Act, a conviction of this nature typically leads to disqualification from electoral politics.

Was the evidence truly hidden, or was it a matter of political climate? For years, critics of the Jogi family argued that the 2007 acquittal was a byproduct of the influence the family wielded over the state’s nascent institutions. The High Court’s ruling suggests that the passage of time hasn’t blunted the legal accountability for a crime that fundamentally altered the state’s political trajectory.

The 28 other convicts in the case, who are currently serving life sentences, include former senior police officials and hired gunmen. Their appeals were also heard alongside the state’s appeal against Jogi’s acquittal. The court has upheld the sentences for the others, reinforcing the original findings of a brutal, premeditated hit.

This isn’t just about one man. It’s a reckoning for a period of Chhattisgarh’s history defined by allegations of “Sarkar-Raj” and extra-constitutional power.

The state government has signaled it will move to implement the court’s orders immediately. Legal experts suggest that unless a stay is granted by the Supreme Court within days, Amit Jogi faces a mandatory prison term. The son of the man who once ran this state now finds himself at the mercy of the very gavel his father once commanded from a distance.

Justice took two decades to arrive, but it arrived with a deafening sound.