Haren Pandya represented the Ellis Bridge constituency of Ahmedabad City as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator.
[7] After the Godhra riots, it was reported that in a cabinet meeting, Pandya had opposed the bringing of bodies of the victims to Ahmedabad because that would arouse passion.
[9] In November 2007, Outlook reported that Pandya had revealed to the magazine in May 2002 that on the night of 27 February 2002 Narendra Modi had held a meeting in his residence, in which he instructed the attending bureaucrats and police officers to allow "people to vent their frustration and not come in the way of the Hindu backlash.
On 19 August 2002, Pandya again spoke to the magazine, according to Outlook, and reiterated what he had said earlier, with the additional comment that if his identity as the source of this information were to be revealed, then he would be killed.
The meeting had a singular purpose: the senior-most police officials were told that they should expect a "Hindu reaction" after Godhra.
[10][11] Supreme Court appointed SIT, after investigation, concluded that the Haren Pandya was not present in any such meeting and that such a claim is a "figment of imagination".
[13] On 26 March 2003, at about 7:40 am, Pandya was killed by two unidentified assailants who shot five bullets at him when he had just finished his morning walk in the Law Gardens in Ahmedabad.
Pandya's family started worrying when he did not return home and sent his personal assistant Nilesh Bhatt to check on him.
[14] 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.
[19][20][21][22] An NGO named Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), on the basis of statements of a witness in Sohrabuddin Sheikh case and allegations made on the then Gujarat government in a book named Gujarat Files by journalist Rana Ayyub had sought re-investigation in Haren Pandya murder case.
[25] Citing unnamed sources in the Gujarat State Police, the report said that Sohrabuddin was initially given the task, but he back-pedalled and the murder was then executed by Tulsiram.
Asgar had informed Bhatt that he was contacted by Sohrabuddin Sheikh to carry out the murder, and had even visited Ahmedabad for this purpose, but at the last moment he had changed his mind and returned to Hyderabad without killing Pandya.
In police terminology, the Pandya case has been called a "cut-out murder" in which it is not possible to establish the link between the victim and the conspirator or motivator of the crime.