A Gujarat court has summoned BJP president, Amit Shah, as a witness in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case.
A special court on Tuesday asked Shah to appear before it on 18 September based on a request by Maya Kodnani, a former BJP minister, who has been awarded life imprisonment in another riot case of Naroda Patiya.
“The court has issued summons for 18 September. The order was passed on a request of Maya Kodnani,” her lawyer, Amit Patel, told HT.
Kodnani was the then women and child welfare minister in the Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi.
She had first requested the court to summon Shah and 13 others in her defence in April this year.
By summoning Shah and her nursing home staff, Sola civil hospital staff and others, Kodnani will try to prove that at the time of riots in Naroda Gam on 28 February, she was present at places like Gujarat assembly, civil hospital, her home and other places, but not Naroda Gam.
The riots broke out a day after Sabarmati Express’s S6 coach with karsevaks was set ablaze in Godhra.
According to the application, she wants to prove that she first met the then-Sarkhej MLA in the assembly and then again at Sola Civil Hospital, where bodies of karsevaks were brought, when the riots broke out.
Kodnani was accused of inciting violence and leading the mob that killed 11 people at Naroda Gam and was awarded life imprisonment in the case. However, she is out on bail since 2014 on health grounds.
