Former minister Kodnani is a key accused in the Naroda Gam case, but 14 witnesses have told a special court that she wasn’t in Naroda when the riot took place.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah was in a special court in Ahmedabad Monday. He was among 14 additional defence witnesses who testified in favour of former BJP minister and 2002 Gujarat riots accused Maya Kodnani.
Shah, then the MLA for Sarkhej, testified that Kodnani, the MLA for Naroda, was present at the Gujarat state assembly on 28 February 2002, the day the Naroda Gam riots took place.
Apart from Shah, Kodnani’s husband Surendra also testified that his wife, a gynaecologist by profession, was overseeing a delivery at the hospital they founded – Shivam Maternity Hospital in Naroda, Ahmedabad – and was not present at the scene of the riot, which she is accused of instigating.
Dr Anil Chadha, superintendent of the hospital, also joined Surendra Kodnani’s testimony. Another man, who claims his child was born in the hospital on the day of the riot, also provided an alibi for the former minister.
They were joined in Maya Kodnani’s defence by former BJP legislator Amrish Govindbhai Patel and Ahmedabad’s former deputy mayor Dinesh Makwana.
The testimonies are likely to strengthen Kodnani’s defence that she was not present at the riot scene to incite violence. Kodnani had said that the prosecution had deliberately dropped the statements of these witnesses.
The case and the charges
The Naroda Gam riot case is one of the nine major cases of 2002 communal riots investigated by the Special Investigation Team.
Kodnani is the lone woman among around 80 people accused in the case, and is charged with conspiracy, murder, and rioting.
Kodnani has already been convicted in another case for inciting violence during the Naroda Patiya riots, in which 96 people were killed, and has been awarded 28 years in jail. She has been out of jail since 2014, after she was granted bail for health reasons.
The apex court last week gave the special court a four-month deadline to complete trial in the remaining 2002 riots cases.