Kodnani, Bajrangi among 67 acquitted in Naroda Gam massacre case

More than two decades after 11 Muslim community members were killed in the post-Godhra riots in Ahmedabad's Naroda Gam, a special court in Ahmedabad on Thursday acquitted all the 67 accused in the case, including former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani and ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.

The Ahmedabad-based court of S K Baxi, special judge for SIT cases, acquitted all the accused in one of the major post-Godhra riots cases which was probed by a Supreme-Court appointed Special Investigation Team.

A detailed court order was awaited.

Soon after the brief verdict was announced, some of the accused raised slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' outside the court.

Those acquitted include Kodnani, former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel and ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.

There were a total of 86 accused in the case, of which 18 died during pendency of the trial, while one was discharged earlier by the court.

The CrPC section 169 relates to release of accused when evidence is deficient.

Reacting to her acquittal, Kodnani, who was a minister in the government headed by then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, said, "The truth has truly won today."

Advocate Chetan Shah, who represented 82 out of the 86 accused, said he made sure "innocents" were acquitted for which he presented a written argument in the court running into 7,719 pages.

Advocate Shahshad Pathan, who represented the victims, said the acquittal order will be challenged in the Gujarat high court.

"We will study the grounds on which the special court decided to acquit all the accused and challenge the order in the High Court. It appears the victims have been denied justice. The question remains as to who burnt 11 persons to death in the presence of policemen?" Pathan said.

One of the accused who was acquitted said the special court's judgment has exposed those who conspired to frame innocents like him.

"The court has passed its order after studying all the aspects of the case. That the truth always wins has been proved again today," he said.

The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), and 153 (provocation for riots), among others.

Riots broke out in the Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, during a bandh called to protest the torching of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express by a mob near Godhra station a day earlier. As many as 58 train passengers, mostly karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, were charred to death.

The then-Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah, now Union home minister, had in September 2017 appeared in the trial court as a defence witness for Kodnani.

Former BJP minister Kodnani had requested the court to summon Shah to prove her alibi that she was present in the Gujarat assembly and later at Ahmedabad's Sola Civil Hospital, and not at Naroda Gam, where the massacre took place.

Six different judges have presided over the case.

When the trial started in 2010, S H Vora was the presiding judge.

He was later elevated to the Gujarat high court.

Special judges who subsequently handled the case included Jyotsna Yagnik, KK Bhatt and PB Desai, all of whom retired during the pendency of the trial.

Special judge MK Dave came next, but was transferred before the conclusion of the trial, advocate Chetan Shah said.

Kodnani was separately convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail by the trial court in the case related to the post-Godhra riot in Ahmedabad's Naroda Patiya area where 97 people were massacred.

She was later discharged by the high court.

The massacre at Naroda Gam was one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases investigated by the SC-appointed SIT and heard by special courts.