Gomtipur riot case referred to Gujarat high court

The city sessions court has referred the Gomtipur riot case of 2002, in which former MLA from Rakhial, Jitu Waghela, has been booked, to the Gujarat high court. According to lawyer Anand Brahmbhatt, who appeared for 13 members of the Hindu community including Waghela, the court referred the matter to the high court on grounds that a new chargesheet had not been filed in the case and that it could not take cognizance of the matter as the accused had not submitted an application seeking that the charges against them be dropped.

Waghela and 43 others have been charged for violence, rioting and killing one person on March 31, 2002 during a clash in Gomtipur. The former MLA has also been charged with inciting a rioting mob in the area.

According to case details, all the accused in the case are now out on bail. One of the accused, Munnaram Khushwa, was granted bail on Thursday when the city sessions court passed its aforementioned order. Khushwa had applied for bail on August 3, on the ground that he had not been involved in the offence.

The city sessions court had directed that two separate chargesheets be filed in the case in the wake of an application filed by the state government praying that two chargesheets be filed, in April this year. The state government had said in its application that separate chargesheets should be filed against members of the Hindu and Muslim communities who took part in the riots, instead of a single chargesheet against all the accused, as the accused who belonged to the two communities had “conflicting objectives”.

In its order, the court observed that looking to the facts and circumstances of the present case, it can be said that both groups formed their unlawful assemblies separately to fulfil their common object.