A special court in Ahmedabad on Thursday acquitted all 68 accused, including former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel and former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, in the Naroda Gam massacre case of 2002, wherein 11 Muslims were killed during communal riots.
Special Judge for the Special Investigation Agency (SIT), S.K. Baxi, passed the order.
Total 86 people were accused in the case, out of which, 18 died during the trial.
On February 28, 2002, 11 people belonging to the minority community were killed during communal violence at Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad. The incident took place during a bandh, which was called to protest against the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002, in which 58 passengers, mostly Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, were burnt alive.
The trial, which started in 2010 with S.H. Vora as Judge, went on for almost 13 years, witnessing six judges presiding over the case. Justice Vora was elevated to the Gujarat High Court. Later, the hearings were conducted under Jyotsna Yagnik, K.K. Bhatt and P.B. Desai, who all retired during the trial.
Total 187 and 57 witnesses were examined by the prosecution and the defence, respectively, during the trial.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani in September, 2017. The former BJP MLA had requested the court to summon Shah to prove her alibi that she was present in the Gujarat Assembly and later at the Sola Civil Hospital and not at Naroda Gam where the massacre took place.
The Prosecution produced the video of a sting operation carried out by journalist Ashish Khetan, along with call details of Kodnani, Bajrangi and others during the relevant period, as evidence.
The accused were booked under 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) of the Indian Penal Code, among others. The maximum punishment for all these crimes is death.
Kodnani, a former MLA, was convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the Naroda Patiya riot case, in which 97 people were killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots. She was later discharged by the Gujarat High Court.
The former BJP leader was charged with criminal conspiracy, rioting, murder and attempt to murder in the present case.