Was Haren Pandya actually killed in his car?

Loopholes in the investigation of the Haren Pandya murder case and the statement of witnesses and forensic experts led to doubts about the prosecution view that the BJP leader was killed in his car. In fact, while arguing before the trial court, defence lawyers went so far as to allege that Pandya may have been killed at some other place early that morning and his body later dumped in his car.

Defence advocate BM Gupta had argued before the designated Pota court that no blood was found either on the seat or on the floor of the car in which Pandya' body was found shot dead. He had stated that the volume of blood in a person's body can be estimated from his height.

As Pandya was nearly 6-feet tall, his body would have had 7.5 litres of blood, Gupta said. But the doctor who conducted the post-mortem on hid body could recover only 1.5 litres of blood, the defence lawyer added.

Further, professor of forensic medicine Dr M Narayan Reddy's deposition before the Pota court was equally damaging for the prosecution's version of events. He had categorically stated that bullet injuries in the upper part of the body were possible if someone was seated in the position in which Pandya's body was found in the Maruti-800 car. However, the bullet injuries that were found on the lower part of the slain BJP's leader's body and on his chest were not possible in that position, Dr Reddy had said.

The defence lawyer had further pointed our that even the star eyewitness of the prosecution had said that when he found Pandya's body in the car, he did not see the body bleeding nor did he see his white kurta turn red due to the bleeding. Further, the prosecution had stated that Pandya was taken to hospital in a jeep but no blood was found in the jeep, the defence said.