Putting all speculations at rest, BJP national president Amit Shah on Monday testified as a witness in the Naroda Gam riots case at a special sessions court in Ahmedabad and said that Maya Kodnani, a minister in the then Narendra Modi government and an accused in the case, was with him and not at the scene of crime.
Eleven persons were killed in Naroda Gam on February 28, 2002, a day after 59 persons, majority of them kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya, were burnt alive on board S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express at the Godhra railway station.
Kodnani, a gynaecologist by profession, is already a convict in Naroda Patiya massacre in which 97 people lost lives. Naroda Patiya is only a few kilometers away from Naroda Gam. Kodnani was sentenced to life imprisonment but is out on bail on health grounds.
For more than a fortnight, on every hearing, the drama continued as Kodnani had told the court that as Shah remained busy, it was difficult to make out as to which address the summons should be issued on. She wanted him to depose to prove her alibi that she was not at the scene of crime.
Thereafter, the court issued summons to Shah and asked him to remain present in the court on Monday.
Shah's testimony in the case is very important, for if Kodnani is acquitted in Naroda Gam case, it may have implications in the Naroda Patiya case also, in which she has already challenged her life imprisonment.
In the Court of Justice P. D. Desai, Shah testified that Kodnani was with him at the state assembly and later on he met her at the Sola Civil Hospital. Located on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway, about 30 kilometer from the state capital Gandhinagar, the hospital was the place where bodies of Godhra carnage victims were brought.
Shah, who testified in Gujarati, told the Judge that Kodnani was consoling family members of those killed in Godhra.
When questioned, he specified that he had not remained present as a witness in Naroda Patiya case as the SIT, investigating the case, had not issued him summons.
Shah, however, did not specify that at what time he met Kodnani at the Sola Civil Hospital. He said he does not remember the time.
There are as many as 14 witnesses and 82 accused in the case.
