All 68 defendants in the 2002 Naroda Gam tragedy, which resulted in the deaths of 11 members of the Muslim minority during riots, were cleared on Thursday by a special court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. All of the defendants in one of the significant post-Godhra riots cases investigated by a Special Investigation Team formed by the Supreme Court were exonerated by the special court for SIT cases.
86 people were implicated, of whom 18 passed away in the interim, including former BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, former VHP leader Jaydeep Patel, and former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.
The defendants were accused of violating many Indian Penal Code articles, including 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 153 (provocation for riots), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with lethal weapons), 302 (murder), and 307 (attempt to kill).
Eleven members of the Muslim minority were killed in rioting that broke out in Ahmedabad's Naroda Gam suburb during a bandh planned to protest the Godhra train burning the day before, which killed 58 passengers, mostly Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, and claimed their lives.
In 2008, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) looked into the disturbances charged against Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam atrocity cases. She was given a 28-year prison term in August 2012 for her involvement in the Naroda Patiya massacre case by a special SIT court. But in April 2018, the Gujarat High Court overturned the trial court's decision and declared the former BJP minister innocent.
Maya Kodnani asked the court to call senior BJP politician Amit Shah as a defence witness in September 2017 to establish her alibi in the Naroda Gam massacre case. He is currently the Union Home Minister. Kodnani claimed to have witnessed the killing both inside the Gujarat Assembly and later at the Sola Civil Hospital.
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