All Naroda Gam accused acquitted: Here’s a total recall of the 2002 Gujarat riots case

By India Today News Desk: A special trial court in Ahmedabad on Thursday acquitted all the 67 accused, including former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case. Here is a recap of the case.

• Eleven people were killed in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam on February 28, 2002. The case was one of the nine major riot cases in Gujarat following the Godhra train burning case a day earlier.
• After the deaths in Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya, where 97 people were killed, the violence spread in Gujarat.
• On the Supreme Court’s order, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to probe the Naroda Gam massacre in 2008.
• The SIT questioned 187 people and recorded the statements of 57 eyewitnesses.
• The SIT filed a chargesheet against 86 accused in the Naroda Gam massacre case, including former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Maya Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and VHP leader Jaideep Patel.
• In the Naroda Gam massacre, the accused were tried under various IPC Sections, including Section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 143 (unlawful assembly) and 147 (rioting).
• A special court started the trials in this case in 2009. Eighteen accused died during the course of the trial.
• In September 2017, then BJP chief Amit Shah appeared as a witness in defence of former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani. She is alleged to have instigated a mob of thousands of people, who were angry over the Godhra train killing a day earlier, that led to the violence in Naroda Gam.
• The trial ran for 13 years and six judges heard the cases. The verdict in the Naroda gam killings came after 21 years from the beginning of the trial.