Gujarat SIT Court Summons Amit Shah As Witness In 2002 Naroda Gam Riot Case:- BJP President Amit Shah has been summoned by a special SIT court hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case on Tuesday to appear before it as a defence witness for former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani. Kodnani is one of the prime accused in the riot case.

The special SIT judge PB Desai, on a petition filed by Kodnani, summoned Shah to appear before the court on September 18. The court said if in case Shah fails to present himself on a given date, it will not re-issue the summons.

The residential address of Shah in Thaltej area of Ahmedabad city, was presented before the court by Kodnani’s advocate Amit Patel, after which the court issued the summons to him on the same address. Earlier, Kodnani had failed to give the address to which the summons to Shah were to be issued. Her advocate had twice sought time for four days each to her to find out and submit the address on which the summons could be issued to Shah.

(Video Source: News World India)

In April, the court allowed Kodnani’s petition to have the summons issued to Shah and some others as witnesses in her defence. The court, at the subsequent hearings, had asked Kodnani to tell it whether Shah will depose as her witness. Kodnani, in her application to prove her innocence, said that after attending the state Legislative Assembly, she had visited Sola civil hospital on the day of incident. She further claimed in her application that Shah was also present at the Sola civil hospital, where bodies of ‘karsevaks’ killed in the Sabarmati train burning incident were brought from Godhra. Shah was an MLA at that time.

Kodnani said that Shah’s testimony will help prove her alibi. The Supreme court had asked the SIT court two weeks back to conclude the trial within four months. A bench headed by the then Chief Justice JS Khehar was informed that the trial was in progress and evidence of the defence witnesses was being recorded by a special court. The lower court had been asked by the top court to complete the recording of evidence of the remaining defence witnesses in two months.

The massacre in Naroda Gam in Ahmedabad is one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases which were investigated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). Around eleven persons belonging to the minority community were killed in Naroda Gam in the 2002 riots, during a bandh called to protest the Godhra train burning incident.

A total of 82 individuals are facing trial in the case. Kodnani, who was then a minister in the Narendra Modi-led State government, has already been convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the case of riot at Naroda Patiya where 97 people were massacred.

SUPRAJA