AHMEDABAD: All 67 accused, including then BJP minister Maya Kodnani and former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, were on Thursday acquitted by a Special SIT court in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case in Gujarat. The riots broke out a day after 58 Kar Sevaks on board Sabarmati Express died after their bogie was set afire in Godhra.
Twenty-one years after the horrific incident, special judge Shubhada Baxi in her verdict invalidated a journalist’s sting operation and Kodnani’s call details as evidence. Of the total 86 accused, 18 died during the pendency of the trial, while one person was discharged earlier by the court, reducing the count to 67. Defence lawyer Dinesh Vaghela said they were able to successfully establish that Kodnani was present at the Assembly and the Sola Civil Hospital and not at the riot site.
Union home minister Amit Shah had testified in court in 2017, saying, “I saw Mayaben in the state legislative Assembly and at Sola Civil Hospital on that day,” informed Vaghela. Kodnani was sentenced in a different Naroda Patiya riots case in 2012, in which 97 Muslims were killed, but were acquitted by the Gujarat High Court five years ago.
A disappointed prosecution counsel Shamshad Pathan said, “Our question remains: who burned 11 people alive in Naroda village? We were upset with the government; the SIT was constituted extremely late; and we are again dissatisfied with the special court’s decision today.” He said they will challenge the verdict in the Gujarat High Court.
After the judgment, a large number of people outside the court raised slogans of Jai Shri Ram. Maya Kodnani told the local media, “truth has won.” The Supreme Court had on August 26, 2008 appointed a Special Inquiry Team to conduct the investigations and the trial began in 2010. It examined 244 witnesses under the sequential presidency of six judges.