Naroda Patiya Case: 3 Facts and 5 Questions

On 20 April, the Gujarat High Court passed a judgment in the infamous Naroda Patiya massacre case that took place 16 years ago, on 28 February 2002, that had come up before it on appeal. It acquitted Maya Kodnani, former MLA and minister in Narendra Modi’s govt. in Gujarat from charges of causing grievous harm and being part of a conspiracy in which a mob estimated to be between 5000-10000 strong attacked Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam, two localities on the suburbs of Ahmedabad where over 2000 Muslim families, mostly migrants from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, lived.

Some important facts about the incident are:

• The attack started on the morning of 28 February 2002 and continued till late in the night. The whole locality was razed and destroyed, a masjid was burnt down, officially 97 people including 36 women and 35 children were killed in the most brutal ways (hacked, stabbed, beheaded, quartered), several women raped including pregnant women. Over 150 calls were made to police but they remained unresponsive. Local policemen were seen helping the attackers who were reportedly wearing saffron head bands and chanting pro-Hindu slogans.
• It was alleged that Maya Kodnani, then BJP MLA, gave provocative speeches to incite the mob that attacked Naroda Patiya, and was allegedly seen getting out of the car at the site, talking to some mob leaders and distributing sharp edged weapons (swords) to them. Kodnani, a gynecologist by profession, had long been part of the RSS affiliated Rashtriya Sevika Samiti and was known for her fiery oratory and extreme religious views. Later, in 2007 she became minister for women and child development in the Modi ministry in Gujarat but resigned after she was arrested in 2009.
• The Naroda Patiya incident was termed as the biggest single massacre in the series of massacres that took place in Gujarat in 2002. After 58 people were horrifically burnt to death as they were travelling in a train that was set ablaze on 27 February 2002 at Godhra, violence engulfed the state and continued sporadically for several weeks. In all, official reports put the state-wide death toll in this violence at 1,044 dead, 223 missing, and 2,500 injured. Of the dead, 790 were Muslim and 254 Hindu. Other independent reports put the death toll at about 2000.

The order passed by the Gujarat High Court has raised several troubling questions about the case. Some of the important ones are:

1. In 2012 the SIT court had reportedly said that Maya Kodnani was the “a kingpin of riots” and that she led the mob and incited them for violence. She abetted and supported the violent mob, it said. "She (Kodnani) has played a role of instigating the Hindu mobs, thereby abetting the commission of offences by the co-conspirators. She has abetted formation of unlawful assembly to execute the conspiracy," the court had reportedly said. This was on the basis of eyewitness testimonies, phone call records, etc. How did the “kingpin” become “not guilty” within four years? What happened to all the evidence?

2. The Gujarat High Court found that the 11 eye witness accounts that placed Kodnani at the site of the massacre were “unreliable”. The SIT court had based itself on these very accounts, among other evidence. So what changed in between? What happened to the eyewitnesses and their testimonies?

3. In September 2017, BJP President Amit Shah, who was a BJP MLA at that time, reportedly told the Gujarat High Court during hearings of the Naroda Patiya case that he met Kodnani at the Vidhan Sabha at 8.30 AM and again at the Civil Hospital at 9.30 AM. This appeared to have contradicted all other testimonies that showed that Kodnani was at Naroda Patiya at that time. In 2012, Shah had reportedly told the SIT court that he met Kodnani at the Vidhan Sabha at 8.30 AM. The trial court had reportedly observed "This court is of the opinion that Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad are twin cities, hardly at a distance of 30 km from each other. Therefore, if the accused was relieved at 8.40 am, it is not difficult for her to reach at Naroda Patiya site after 9 am". So, the question is how did Shah’s testimony change the course of the case so much?

4. In an unprecedented occurrence, six sitting judges of the Gujarat High Court reportedly recused themselves from hearing the appeal case. They are: Justices Akil Kureshi, M R Shah, K S Jhaveri, G B Shah, Sonia Gokani and R H Shukla. Why did they opt out?

5. And finally, will the Gujarat govt. appeal against this High Court judgement’s acquittal of Maya Kodnani?