Shah testifies in 2002 riots case against Kodnani
The BJP chief told the court he did not know where Kodnani was between the time he first saw her in the assembly building and again at the hospital, or where she went after being escorted out of the hospital, defence lawyer Amit Patel told Hindustan Times.
The state assembly and the hospital are about 23 km apart. The prosecution accuses Kodnani of leading the rioters at Naroda Gam between 9 am and 10am.
Riots broke out across Gujarat after a bogie of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire at Godhra on February 27, 2002.
The blaze killed 59 Hindus, mostly Karsevaks or volunteers returning from Ayodhya, where rival Hindu and Muslim groups are locked in a decades-old dispute over a religious site.
The train fire sparked three days of reprisal attacks across the state that left about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead. Both leaders had visited the hospital where the bodies of the victims of the train fire had been brought.
After Shah’s hour-long testimony, the defence and prosecution lawyers differed on its interpretation.
“Amit Shah has testified in favour of Kodnani,” said a second defence lawyer Chetan Shah.
But prosecution lawyer Shamsad Pathan contended that Kodnani’s presence i n the assembly and later at the hospital didn’t necessarily absolve her.
“Amit Shah told the court Maya Kodnani was in the assembly in the morning and then was seen leaving the hospital around 11.30am. This proves she was present at Naroda Gam when the violence happened,” said Pathan.
Kodnani, the women and child welfare minister in the then Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, has already been sentenced to life in prison for a separate case of rioting in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area, a verdict she has challenged. She’s been on bail since 2014.
Asked why he did not depose earlier in the Naroda Patiya riots trial, Shah said he wasn’t called to testify. The prosecution had argued that Shah did not turn up despite the special court asking anyone with knowledge of the case to depose.
Defence lawyer Shah said 57 witnesses had deposed for the defence side and no more witness is required to appear in the court.
For the prosecution, 187 witnesses deposed. Pathan said the final arguments are expected to begin from September 25.
Last week, the court summoned Shah as a witness following a request by Kodnani to prove that she was not present at Naroda Gam when riots broke out there.
In 2009, the Supreme Court set up six special courts to speed up trials in cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, among the country’s worst religious violence. “We have not done anything wrong. We are confident that the court will give order in our favour. It is clear this (the disqualification) has been done to get the magic number.”
DMK working president MK Stalin said the government was trying to achieve majority through the backdoor with a spineless act. “Anti-defection law does not apply in this case and the Speaker is wrong,” Stalin asserted. “The governor and the chief minister are responsible for this critical situation in Tamil Nadu,” he said.