Gujarat court orders removal of PM Narendra Modi's name from suit filed by British nationals on 2002 riots

A local court in Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat on Saturday ordered the removal of name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from a civil suit seeking damages in the case of killing of four British nationals during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.

The court noted that allegations were "general" and "vague" in nature and no concrete evidence existed to show any "direct or indirect involvement in the alleged act or any specific role from which reasonable ground for malice or intentional acts or omissions can be found, entitling the plaintiff to claim any legal right or relief against defendant No. 1 (Modi) in his personal or official capacity in the suit."

Principal senior civil judge, Prantij Suresh Gadhavi pronounced the order on Saturday ordering to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name, who was the then Chief Minister along with former IPS officers including K Chakravarty and Amitabh Pathak and ex IAS officer Ashok Narayan.

The order came on an application moved by advocate S S Shah on behalf of Modi praying to drop the name of the Prime Minister from the civil suit as defendant. He argued that Modi was "joined without any reason and not required to be continued for the alleged tortuous acts of other officers of the State. It is stated that presence of defendant No.1 in the suit is at all not necessary and legally sustainable..."

In 2004, Sameema Dawood, a British national, and others had filed filed special civil suit in the local court against Modi, then minister of state for home Gordhan Zadaphia and 12 others, seeking Rs 20 crore as damage “on account of violence in the state wherein the relatives of the plaintiffs are alleged to have been killed…”

In 2002, British nationals Saeed Dawood, Shakeel Dawood and Mohammed Aswat were killed by a mob on a National Highway-8 on February 28, 2002 while they were were returning to their village Lajpur, Navsari in south Gujarat after visiting Agra and Jaipur. Three of them were killed on the spot while the dead body of the fourth was never found and he was presumed dead. The incident happened a day after 57 kar sevaks were killed at Godhra railway station which sparked the widespread riots in the the state. In 2015, a special court acquitted all the six accused on the ground that there was not enough evidence. This was one of the nine riot cases probed by Supreme Court appointed-Special Investigation Team.

Imran Dawood, relative of the victims, had filed the FIR at Prantij police station and later in 2004 filed a civil suit. During the hearing on application on dropping Modi from the case, Dawood filed an affidavit opposing the move. The order mentions his stand that that Modi was allegedly liable for the incident for being "Chief Minister of State of Gujarat and constitutionally, statutorily and personally liable for being in complete command of the State machinery." The order mentions his allegations as saying that "defendant No. 1 was elected on BJP ticket and Sangh Pracharak of RSS and continued the policy of RSS through defendant No. 8 state of Gujarat." The victims have alleged that "it was the acts and omissions of defendant No. 1, which had resulted into genocidal killings of Muslims."

Imran also told the court that his lawyer Anwar Malek wouldn't represent him in the court as lawyer "due to targeted actions against the lawyer. He has also expressed impossibility of securing services of other lawyers." The court has not believed the arguments. Modi's lawyer argued that all aspects of allegations have been covered by Nanavati Commission, which probed the case, and "there is not at all any specific allegations against defendant No. 1 and therefore defendant No. 1 is required to be strike off from the suit proceedings."