Gujarat High Court to hear Naroda Patiya case charge sheet tomorrow

The Gujarat High Court said on Wednesday that it would begin hearing details of the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case charge sheet from tomorrow. "We shall start (hearing details of the charge sheet) beginning from tomorrow,. It will show names of the accused in the charge sheet and there will be a concise history of the case," a two-judge bench, comprising Justice Mohinder Pal and Justice RD Kothari, said here.

The Gujarat High Court has started conducting final hearing on appeals by convicts including a former Gujarat minister Mayaben Kodnani and former Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Babu Bajrangi in the Naroda Patiya riot case, in which as many as 97 people of the minority community were killed. When the FIR of the case was being read out in the court today, the High Court bench commented that the police had not named some of the accused in the riot case. "All it can be said is that the police was not ready to file FIR against some persons. It may not be the case that they (victims) have not given their names but it was not written in the FIR," Justice Mohinder Pal of the bench said.

Justice Mohinder Pal's comment came when defence counsel Nirupam Nanavati was reading the FIR which did not include the names of some of accused persons who are convicted in the case like Maya Kodnani. During the hearing of the case, Nirupam Nanavati, who appeared for Maya Kodnani, said that some victims had supported his client by filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court in 2003.  "Most of the victims filed affidavits in support of the petitioner (Kodnani) and they have not named accused number 37 (Kodnani)," Nanavati submitted before the court.

In this case, cross appeals have also been filed by survivors and the prosecution agency (Special Investigation Team) about the enhancement of the sentence or challenging the punishment awarded by the special trial court. In August 2012, a special trial court had convicted 31 people and awarded life terms to 30 people, including Maya Kodnani for killings and criminal conspiracy, while it had also awarded 'imprisonment till death' to former VHP leader Babu Bajrangi.

Two convicts, including Kodnani and Kirpalsingh Chhabra, were granted bail in this case.

The Naroda Patiya riot incident had taken place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.