Gujarat Riots: Court Acquits All Accused Including Ex-BJP Minister Kodnani In Naroda Gam Case. Top Points

A special court today acquitted all accused in the Naroda Gam communal riot case from 2002, in which eleven Muslim community members were killed. Here are the key points to take into account.

A special court in Ahmedabad on Thursday (April 20) acquitted all 69 accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case, including former BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel. The Naroda Gam case was one of nine major riots in Gujarat following February 27, 2002, burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, for which a speedy day-to-day trial was ordered. The trials were assigned to designated courts and overseen by the Supreme Court, but the Naroda Gam case took years to resolve.

The trial was presided over by five judges over the years, and several previous orders by them documented the prosecution's delays as well as the defense's dilatory tactics. Kodnani, a former minister in the government of then-chief minister Narendra Modi, former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jaideep Patel, and V S Gohil, a former police inspector at the Naroda police station, are among those accused in the case.

Kodnani and Bajrangi were convicted in the Naroda Patiya case in 2012, which was the worst massacre of the Gujarat riots on February 28, 2002. Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years in prison, but she was acquitted by the Gujarat High Court in 2018. In the Naroda Gam case, 17 of the 86 defendants were acquitted during the trial, leaving 69 on bail. In the case, nearly 182 prosecution witnesses were cross-examined. Special Judge Shubhada Krishnakant Baxi adjourned the case on April 5.

Charges Against The Accused: 

Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the accused face charges of murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, rioting, dacoity, promoting communal disharmony, mischief by fire, causing disappearance of evidence, abetment, deliberate acts intended to outrage religious feelings, and voluntarily causing hurt, among other charges.

'Deliberately Allowed The Incident To Happen': The Nanavati Report

On February 28, 2002, 11 Muslims were burned to death after mobs set fire to their homes in Muslim Maholla, Kumbhar Vas, in Ahmedabad's Naroda Gam district. At the Naroda police station, an FIR was filed.

The Justice Nanavati Commission's report on the Gujarat riots noted witness statements that "there was no police help received by the Muslims and they were simply at the mercy of the miscreants," and that police assistance arrived only in the evening. Several police officers testified before the Commission that they were unable to reach Naroda Gam because they were dealing with a more serious situation at Naroda Patiya at the same time.

The Commission found that the "police force at the location was insufficient" and that the police "were not even properly equipped." It came to the conclusion that "it cannot be said that they deliberately allowed the incident to happen."

Concerning the involvement of political figures in the massacre, the Commission stated, "...Not only the residents of the locality, but even the police present at the scene have stated that the leaders of the VHP, Bajrang Dal, and BJP had actively participated in these incidents and the riots in this area occurred at their instigation."

'Saw Kodnani In Assembly On Incident Day': Amit Shah Appeared As Key Witness

Kodnani requested the examination of 14 additional witnesses in her defence in March 2017, including union home minister Amit Shah, who was the BJP's national president at the time. According to Shah, who appeared before the designated court on September 18, 2017, he saw Kodnani in the Gujarat Assembly around 8.30 am and at the Sola Civil Hospital around 11-11.15 am on the day of the incident, February 28, 2002.

Shah deposed after the court summoned him on an application filed by Kodnani to prove her alibi that she was not present at Naroda Gam at the time the offence was committed — a claim that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the prosecution agency in this case, disputes.

Timeline Of Major Developments In Naroda Gam Trials: 

Ten sessions cases were registered for trial with a total of 86 accused — nine in 2009 and one in 2010. The nine cases were ordered to be tried together in September 2009, and the public prosecutor's request to combine the tenth trial was granted in July 2010. By that time, 95 prosecution witnesses had been cross-examined in the previous nine cases, and combining all ten trials meant that the trial had to be restarted.

The special public prosecutor was also replaced in the middle of the trial, with Ajay Choksi resigning and SC Shah being appointed in 2012.

Kodnani, Bajrangi, and one Kishan Korani asked designated judge Jyotsna Yagnik to recuse herself from the Naroda Gam case in 2013 because she had convicted them in the Naroda Patiya case. The court denied their application.

In 2013, the defence also filed an application to have 80 prosecution witnesses arraigned as accused, accusing the SIT of bias. At the time, 181 witnesses had been questioned, and the trial was nearing its conclusion, according to the court. The SIT also stated that the defense's request "is nothing more than a further delay of the trial." The court denied this application.

In 2015, the court of then-designated judge Pranav Deshmukh Desai denied the defence's request to further cross-examine SIT investigator Pravinsinh Laxmansinh Mall, despite the fact that Mall had already "suffered extensive and lengthy cross examination, the period having been extended for more than 20 months."

In 2016, the defence requested that former IPS Rahul Sharma be charged in the case. Sharma was deposed as a witness after the application was withdrawn. The defence objected to Sharma's alleged behaviour of "smiling" and "scoffing" during the proceedings during his deposition. The court dismissed the objections, stating that such incidents were a "common phenomenon."

Sharma was a key witness in the Gujarat riots cases, and he gave crucial evidence to the Nanavati Commission. Following run-ins with the government, he resigned from the IPS and is now a lawyer in the Gujarat High Court.

At one point in May 2017, the defence requested that the case's special prosecutors, Gaurang Vyas and VJ Patel, be called as witnesses. While criticising the defense's request, the court noted that it is "yet another attempt by the accused to prolong the proceedings" and that such requests "amount to nothing more than a gross abuse of process of law."