2002 Naroda Patiya massacre: Gujarat High Court likely to pronounce judgment today

11 Muslims were killed in the Naroda Patiya area on February 28, 2002, a day after 59 karsevaks returning to Gujarat from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside a Sabarmati Express coach.
BJP leader Maya Kodnani, an accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case.|  (File)
BJP leader Maya Kodnani, an accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case.| (File)

The Gujarat High Court is likely to pronounce its verdict on appeals in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre today. Ex-BJP minister Maya Kodnani, who was among 32 people convicted in the case by a special court, had moved the High Court against the verdict. Kodnani is currently out on bail.

A division bench of justices Harsha Devani and A S Supehia had reserved its order in August last year. 

Fifty-two-year-old Kodnani has been charged with offences including murder, attempt to murder, rioting and criminal conspiracy in the Naroda Gam case. Kodnani, who was an MLA in 2002, was made a junior minister in Chief Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2007.

In 2012, she was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the case.

Naroda Gam was one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases investigated by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Eleven Muslims were killed in the Naroda Patiya area (near the suburb of Naroda Gam) on February 28, 2002, a day after the Gujarat riots when 59 karsevaks returning to Gujarat from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside a three-tier coach of the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station. A total of 82 people are facing trial in the case.

The riots had started in Naroda Gam area on the morning of February 28 and continued till late in the afternoon.

A total of 187 prosecution witnesses and 57 defence witnesses have been examined in the case till today.

(With PTI inputs)

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