A special court hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case of Ahmedabad has acceded to the request by Maya Kodnani, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator, to summon BJP president Amit Shah and 13 others as her defense witnesses.
Kodnani, who was in August 2012 sentenced to 28 years in jail for her role in the 2002 communal clashes, had moved a petition before the court to summon BJP national president to help verify her claim that she was not present at the scene of the ghastly incident of violence.
She was also accused of killings of 11 members of minority members in an incident that took place in the Naroda Gam area on February 28, 2002, a day after burning of 57 kar sevaks in a train at Godhra.
Judge PB Desai, acceded to request of Kodnani stating that the summons should be issued to these witnesses “at appropriate and relevant stage of trial”.
The judge is also quoted to have said that “…in absence of any objections (by prosecution) and while recognising the right of the accused to examine defence witnesses, I am of the opinion that the number of witnesses sought to be examined is neither unreasonable nor unjustified.”
Mayaben, who was the minister for women and child development in the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat between 2007 to 2009, is perhaps the only high-profile figure to be convicted in connection with the 2002 communal clashes. Mayaben, a gynaecologist, on her part is has claimed that Amit Shah - who was an elected legislator at the time of the riots and 13 others can help her prove that she was in the Gujarat legislative Assembly, Sola Civil Hospital and her nursing home in Ahmedabad during the time of riots and not at the venue of killings she has been accused of.
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