Who’s who on SIT panel

The state government on Monday issued orders for appointment of special public prosecutors and their assistants for seven of the nine cases probed by Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). Here are the profiles of some of them.

Case: Sabarmati express carnage.
Summary: The SIT has examined 183 witnesses in this connection. The carnage had triggered the riots in the year 2002.

Public prosecutors who will appear in the case: Lawyer JM Panchal along with assistant public prosecutors Alpesh Kogje (former government pleader in Gujarat high court) and NN Prajapati (public prosecutor in court of anti-corruption bureau). A senior lawyer at the Gujarat high court, JM Panchal has handled important cases such as the Akshardham temple attack case of 2003 and has appeared as special public prosecutor in the Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case. While Kogje has appeared for an accused in the Patan gangrape case where six accused were convicted, Prajapati has appeared for at least 25 cases for the ACB. 

Case: Prantij riot.
Summary: In this case, a mob set ablaze to a Tata sumo in which four British nationals were travelling in. While two victims were hacked to death, one went missing.

Public prosecutors who will appear in the case: Lawyer Ajay Choksi will appear as special public prosecutor in the case, while Vaibhav Vyas, who has been practising along with Choksi, will appear as the assistant public prosecutor. Hailing from a lawyer family, Choksi has appeared for accused such as suspended DIG, DG Vanzara in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case and in the famous Chetan Battery murder case. Vyas has also appeared along with him in this cases.

Case: Naroda Patia.
Summary: Ninety-five people were killed, 38 injured and three had gone missing in the riots that broke out in the area.

Public prosecutors who will appear in the case: Lawyer Akhilesh Desai will appear as special public prosecutor in the case, and Gaurang Vyas will appear as the assistant public prosecutor. Desai, who has handled the sensitive Bijal Joshi rape case and is a specialist in cases related to NDBS, has also handled cases such as the high-profile Sonia Modi murder case. Vyas is appearing for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and has appeared in the Telgi scam.

Case: Naroda gaam riots.
Summary: In the riots that occurred here soon after the Godhra carnage, 11 people were killed and nine injured.

Public prosecutors who will appear in the case: Nigam Shukla will appear as special public prosecutor in the case, while Vimal Solanki and Kalpen Goswami will appear as assistant public prosecutors. Shukla has appeared for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as standing counsel and also special counsel for the state government in the Nanavati-Shah commission.

Case: Gulbarg massacre.
Summary: At least 37 people, including Congress MP Ahesan Jafri, were killed in the massacre at Gulbarg society which took place at February 28, 2002. A charge-sheet was filed against 54 people in the year 2002.

Public prosecutors to appear in the case: Though names of the public prosecutors are yet to be declared by the legal department, however reliable sources have informed DNA that the names of advocates RK Shah and Naina Bhatt, who have handled the Bilkis Bano rape case, have been proposed by the SIT.

Apart from these, Suresh Shah assisted by Vishal Patel will handle the Sardarpura village attack, while advocates Chinubhai Desai assisted by Manan Desai will handle the Ode village case. Advocate Puranchandra Agarwal assisted Hansa Jain will handle the Dipda Darwaja incident.