New Delhi: A particular courtroom in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Thursday acquitted all accused within the 2002 Naroda Gam bloodbath of 11 members of the Muslim neighborhood throughout communal riots through which former BJP MLA Maya Kodnani and ex-Bajrang Dal chief Babu Bajrangi are among the many accused, information company ANI reported. There had been a complete of 86 accused within the case, however 18 of them died within the intervening interval. The accused face expenses below sections 302 (homicide), 307 (try and homicide), 143 (illegal meeting), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with lethal weapons), 120 (B) (prison conspiracy), and 153 (provocation for riots), amongst others. The most penalty for these offences is dying. The courtroom of S Okay Baxi, particular choose for Special Investigation Agency (SIT) instances, is scheduled to pronounce the decision in opposition to 68 accused on Thursday.
2002 Gujarat riots | All accused acquitted in Naroda Gam bloodbath case pic.twitter.com/vwk4qryz29
— ANI (@ANI) April 20, 2023
What Is 2002 Naroda Gam Massacre?
Eleven individuals had been killed in communal violence in Naroda Gam space of Ahmedabad metropolis on February 28, 2002, throughout a bandh referred to as to protest the Godhra practice burning a day earlier than through which 58 passengers, largely Karsevaks getting back from Ayodhya, had been killed.
The prosecution and defence examined 187 and 57 witnesses, respectively, throughout the trial that began in 2010 and went on for practically 13 years with six judges successively presiding over the case, stated particular prosecutor Suresh Shah.
In September 2017, senior BJP chief (now (*68*) residence minister) Amit Shah appeared as a defence witness for Maya Kodnani. Kodnani, 67, had requested the courtroom to summon him to show her alibi that she was current within the Gujarat Assembly and later on the Sola Civil Hospital and never at Naroda Gam the place the bloodbath happened.
Among the proof produced by the prosecution was the video of a sting operation carried out by journalist Ashish Khetan in addition to name particulars of Kodnani, Bajrangi and others throughout the related interval.
When the trial began, S H Vora was the presiding choose. He was elevated to the Gujarat High Court. His successors, Jyotsna Yagnik, Okay Okay Bhatt and P B Desai, retired throughout the trial. Special choose M Okay Dave who got here subsequent was transferred, prosecutor Shah stated.
“The trial (deposition of witnesses) concluded around four years ago. Arguments of the prosecution concluded and the defence was making its arguments when then special judge P B Desai retired. So arguments started afresh before judge Dave and later judge Baxi which delayed the proceedings,” he stated.
Kodnani, who was a minister within the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat authorities, was convicted and sentenced to twenty-eight years in jail within the Naroda Patiya riot case the place 97 individuals had been massacred. She was later discharged by the Gujarat High Court.
In the current case, she has been charged with prison conspiracy moreover rioting, homicide and tried homicide. The bloodbath at Naroda Gam was one of many 9 main 2002 communal riots instances investigated by the SIT and heard by particular courts.
