Mandal’s Dr.Sheila Soni murder case: Court verdict out, husband Dr. Purushottam Soni innocent

Ahmedabad, 14 March 2013

Mandal’s Dr. Purushottam Soni was tried in his wife Dr Sheila Soni’s murder case for a decade after crime on June 25, 2002. But finally a trial court in Viramgam today in its verdict ordered release of Dr Purushottam Soni and gave him clean chit in this case.

The deceased Dr. Sheila Soni was a BJP worker and she was found murder in her house. Initially, her husband was the complainant, but later he emerged as a suspect in this case and finally arraigned as an accused.

The case had generated political controversy because Anandiben Patel was MLA of Mandal at that time. Anandiben later left the constituency permanently and choose to contest from Patan in north Gujarat.

Dr. Purushottam Soni was claiming his innocence in this case strongly right from the day one. In order to prove his innocence, he urged the police to conduct narco analysis and brain mapping tests on him. After his request was declined, he approached Gujarat high court in 2006 demanding that scientific tests be conducted on him.

The high court had granted Soni’s application and directed the government to get the brain mapping test conducted on the doctor. However, the court also noticed that Soni had been adopting various tactics to delay the court proceeding. The state government was not content with the court order to conduct the test on the accused person on his own will.

An appeal against this HC order was filed in the Supreme Court, which was rejected in 2010. After the SC decision, Gandhinagar FSL conducted brain mapping test on Soni in November 2010. Before the test was conducted, Soni had moved the HC again requesting that the test be performed on him outside Gujarat, but the HC did not entertain him and asked the trial court to oversee the process instead.

If Dr. Purushottam Soni speaks all, and media publish all, his release may invite political implications.