New Delhi: A taluka civil court in Sabarkantha District of Gujarat has ordered removal of the name of Narendra Modi from a civil suit that demanded damages for the murder of 3 British nationals during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Prime Minister Modi was then Chief Minister of Gujarat, according to reports reaching here.
The British family sued for an amount of 23 crores as compensation for the three relatives killed in the riots.
The district court removed PM Modi’s name, arguing that there was no proper reason for including it. Principal Civil Judge S. K Gadhvi said: “While reading the indictment, it was felt that allegations have been made unnecessarily against accused 1 (Modi). This puts a question mark on the incident.”
The judge said: “I think there will be no reason for taking action against accused 1 on such baseless allegations without proof.”
An application was made in the court to remove PM Modi’s name, according to which the state can be held accountable for such an incident, Modi cannot be held personally responsible.
The court said the plaintiff should have given reasonable grounds for arraying Modi. The court also made it clear that removal of Modi’s name wouldn’t affect the plaintiff’s claim to damages.
British citizens Imran and Shirin Dawood filed a case against Narendra Modi and 13 others in 2004. The duo has sought compensation for the deaths of their relatives Saeed Dawood, Shakeel Dawood, Mohammad Aswat. While returning to Navsari from Jaipur, on February 28, 2002, all three were attacked and killed near Prantij.
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It was argued that PM Modi’s name was added without any reason. It was also said that political charges were levelled against Modi, but the Nanavati Commission gave him a clean chit.
Read the order here;
PM-Modi-India Legal Bureau