Naroda Patiya riot victims' lawyer says will challenge HC order that overturned conviction of the accused & acquitted Maya Kodnani
Hours after the Gujarat High Court acquitted 18 convicts in the Naroda Patiya case and convicted 16 on Friday, a lawyer representing the riot victims questioned how only 16 people could have killed 97 people.
"The High Court has convicted 16 people today in the Naroda Patiya case. This means 16 people killed 97 people. How could this have happened?," Shamshad Pathan, the lawyer, told reporters after the High Court acquitted 18 persons, including former state minister and BJP leader Maya Kodnani.
Incidentally, in its judgment delivered in August 2012, a special court had described Kodnani as the 'kingpin' of Naroda Patiya riots.
While Pathan said that they would challenge the High Court order overturning conviction of the accused, the riot victims questioned who killed their children.
"I had identified the accused persons before the judge, but we have not received justice. Today, Mayaben Kodnani has been declared innocent. Two years later, Babu Bajrangi may also be acquitted. We are still scared," said Shakila Ansari, who had lost eight family members in the massacre.
Another victim said that they were scared because of the acquittals of some of the accused.
"We had given our statements before police and the court at a great risk to our lives. The accused used to harass us whenever they came out of jail on parole. Now that they have been acquitted by the High Court, we are worried about what they will do to us," Ishrat Jahan Saiyed said
In spite of the acquittal, a witness in the case Dildar Saiyed, insisted that she had seen Kodnani at the scene of the riots.
NARODA PATIYA RIOTS CASE
What happened today?
Maya Kodnani, who was found guilty by a Gujarat trial court of involvement in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre, was acquitted of all charges
GORY PAST
97 people were killed by rioters on February 28, 2002, a day after S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire
28 years of imprisonment was awarded to Maya Kodnani who was held as the main accused. Later, she was granted bail on account of ill health
LEGAL FAILURE
No death penalty was sought for the main accused by the Special Investigation Team. It didn’t even seek an enhancement of the 28-year sentence given to Kodnani, saying it didn’t have the state government’s sanction for the same.
WHAT SIT SAID
In 2012, the SIT court held that the riots wouldn’t have spread at Naroda Patiya at such a large scale had Kodnani not been involved and had she not abetted the violence, thus holding her one of the kingpins of the riot. Kodnani allegedly played a role of instigating Hindu mob, thereby abetting the commission of offences by the co-conspirators. She has abetted formation of an unlawful assembly to execute the conspiracy
- Naroda Patiya massacre was the single largest case of mass murder during the 2002 Gujarat riots, accounting for the largest number of deaths in a single event
- Kodnani, a BJP leader at the time of the riots, was made minister for woman and child development by then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the riots had ended
- A number of High Court judges, including justices Akil Kureshi, MR Shah, KS Jhaveri, GB Shah, Sonia Gokani and RH Shukla, recused themselves from the case during the hearing on appeals
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