Over 21 years after 11 persons, including four women, were killed in Naroda village during post-Godhra riots in 2002, a court in Ahmedabad on Thursday declared all the 69 accused innocent. Among those declared innocent include then BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, VHP leader Jaideep Patel and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.
More than 1,000 persons, majority of them from minority community, had lost their lives after 59 Kar Sevaks returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive in S6 coach of Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002.
Since morning, there was heavy police bandobust at the sessions court and Naroda village. Family members and supporters of the accused reached the court complex in the morning and anxiously waited for the verdict.
Being a high-profile case, entry to the courtroom was restricted and identity cards were checked. No sooner after the news of the accused being declared innocent came out of the courtroom, the family members and supporters raised “Satyamave Jayate” and “Jai Shree Ram” slogans.
Minesh Vaghela, one of the advocates of the accused, told a section of the media that the complainants could not prove the involvement of the accused in the case. He added people have finally got justice. The lawyer of the complainants said they would challenge the verdict in the High Court.
Kodnani thanked the Almighty and also those who prayed for them. “Today, in a real sense, truth has prevailed,” she observed. Kodnani, who has also served as education minister in the past, was convicted in the Naroda Patiya massacre case. She was put behind the bars in the case for six years, before Gujarat High Court acquitted her in 2018. Kodnani was convicted for 28 years of imprisonment.
The court also took on record a sting operation in which one of the accused had reportedly mentioned how the incidents unfolded.
Another accused, Bajrangi, sentenced to life imprisonment in the Naroda Patiya case, which resulted in the death of 97 Muslims, was granted bail by the Supreme Court on medical grounds in 2019.
Shamshad Pathan, one of the lawyers of the complainants said the victims can only fight for justice and it was not in their hands to give the judgment. Noorjehan Diwan, a woman's rights activist who worked in relief camps post-riots, said one has lost faith in judiciary.
