By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
The wheels of justice have started moving for the victims of 2002 riots of the state with the Gujarat High court having designated special judges for nine fast-track courts to conduct trial of the accused involved in nine heinous riot cases of 2002. However, the Narendra Modi government is yet to appoint public prosecutors to facilitate the trial of the accused.
The high court issued a notification for appointment of judges following an April 27 order of the Supreme Court on a joint petition by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Mumbai-based NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP).
The trial of the nine riot cases will begin after seven years of the violence as the Supreme Court had imposed stay on their trial because the NHRC and CJP in their joint petition had demanded investigation into the incidents by Central Bureau of Investigation and their trial by a court outside Gujarat.
However, the apex court, instead of directing CBI, appointed a Special Investigation Team headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan to probe the cases last year. And instead of ordering trial outside the state, it recently directed fast trial of the cases within Gujarat itself by ordering the Gujarat High Court to set up fast track courts and appoint special judges for these courts for conducting trial on a day to day basis.
Appointment of judges for fast-track courts
While appointing special judges, the Gujarat High Court, however, ensured that five judges, who had earlier handled the riot cases, did not find their names among the judges designated for conducting trial of the accused in the nine riot cases of 2002.
These judges are D R Shah, who handled Sardarpura case in Mehsana district, H M Shah, N N Thakore, M R Patel and B M Modi. The accused in these sensational massacre cases had secured bail from the courts of these judges and some of them have managed to go abroad to escape further trial.
The judges who were designated as special judges by the high court for conducting trial are P R Patel for Godhra train carnage case, B N Karia for Visnagar (Deepada Darwaza), S C Srivastava for Sardarpura (Mehsana), Jyotsna Yagnik for Naroda Gam, S H Vora for Naroda Patia, B U Joshi for Gulberg Society, S Y Trivedi and R M Sarin for two cases of Ode village in Anand district, and H P Patel for Prantij (British nationals) case at Himmatnangar in Sabarkantha district.
However, the trial of the Godhra accused will be held inside the Sabarmati Central Jail as the fast track court for their trial is being set up inside the jail as per notification of the Gujarat High Court. The decision by the high court was taken as per directions of the Supreme Court based on the recommendations of the SIT.
While SIT had recommended setting up of fast tracks courts within the territorial jurisdictions of the districts in which the incidents had taken place, Godhra case was the only exception in which the trial will be held outside the district.
Though SIT officials did not say the reason for their recommendation to conduct trial within the Sabarmati jail for the Godhra accused, SIT sources say that it was the security concern that prompted it to get the fast track court set up inside the jail. All the accused in Godhra case happen to be Muslims.
Appointment of public prosecutors
Meanwhile, SIT is reported to be studying the antecedents and ideological backgrounds of the advocates to be shortlisted for recommending their names to the Modi government for their appointment as public prosecutors.
According to sources, SIT is conducting the exercise because of the allegations that the state government had the tendency to appoint public prosecutors having proximity to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or sympathisers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which was opposed by the riot victims in the past.
In fact, the Mumbai-based NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), in its petition in the apex court had submitted that “public prosecutors appointed in the State in many of the cases relating to the violence of 2002 were actually in collusion with the accused’’.
The CJP, in its petition, had also submitted a list of advocates in the state not to be engaged in the nine riot cases. They are Chetan Shah, a leading Ahmedabad-based lawyer, P P Atre, Vinod Gajjar, Dilip Trivedi, S C Shah and M S Pathak.
According to CJP, Chetan Shah had till September 2003 defended all the 35 accused in the Gulberg Society massacre and later on appointed as the main public prosecutor for the state for major riot cases. Alleged to be linked with VHP, Chetan Shah was also named in an FIR in connection with burning alive of seven Muslims in 1987 and tried as an accused by TADA court. Despite written protest by the Gulberg victims, Firoz Pathan and Sairabanu Sindhi, Shah was not removed.
Regarding P P Atre, CJP submitted that he worked as Chetan’s junior and hence it was not desirable to appoint him. As for Vinod Gajjar, CJP submitted that he had appeared for riot accused and yet appointed PP in 2006.
Alleged to be general secretary of Mehsana district VHP, Dilip Trivedi was appointed as PP in Sardarpura (Mehsana) carnage and all the 46 accused got bail. Similarly, S C Shah and M S Pathak, who represented as public prosecutors in two mass massacre cases in Ode village, all the accused had secured bail.
In another list submitted to the SIT, CJP listed other advocates like Bharat Bhatt of Sabarkantha (Himmatnagar), P S Dhora (Anand), Piyush Gandhi (Panchmahals-Godhra), H M Dhruva (Panchamahals), J M Panchal (Ahmedabad) and Sudhir Brahmbhatt (Ahmedabad) requesting not to appoint them as PPs because of their saffron connection or lapses in the cases in which they worked as PPs in the past.
CJP, according to sources, has also suggested the names of advocates-Naina Bhatt (Ahmedabad), Anoop Pandey (Mumbai), Yakub Sheikh (Ahmedabad), S M Vora (Ahmedabad), I M Munshi (Ahmedabad), R Z Sheikh (Ahmedabad), Afzalkhan Pathan(Ahmedabad), A A Sheikh (Ahmedabad), Virendra Parikh (Mumbai) and Jayesh Yagnik (Mumbai)-to be considered for appointment as PP.
Brief account of the nine riot cases
Godhra Train Massacre (Panchmahals district): A total of 59 persons, mostly Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya in S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express, were killed by torching of the bogey on February 27, 2002. As Muslims were suspected to have been involved in the incident, it generated anti-Muslim frenzy throughout the state leading to violent riots against them. A total of 123 Muslims from different areas of Godhra town were booked as accused under POTA. However, POTA was lifted from the case in February 2008. Out of those arrested, 79 are currently in Sabarmati central jail.
Ode (Anand district): A total of 27 Muslims in this village in Anand district, state’s tobacco belt, were burnt alive in two different cases in the village on March 1, 2002. It was the biggest massacre in Anand district, Many of the survivors have not yet returned to the village and are being asked by the accused to withdraw the case for return to their native place.
Gulberg Society (Ahmedabad): A total of 69 persons including ex-Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ehsan Jafri were killed on February 28, 2002. Parsi couple Dara and Rupa Mody’s 14 year old son Azhar disappeared from the society during riots and is still untraceable. A film Parzania with the missing of Azhar as the main theme was, however, not allowed by saffron outfits to be screened in Gujarat.
Naroda Patiya (Ahmedabad): As many as 98 persons were killed on February 28, 2002, in this society on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city. The womb of one Kausarbi was ripped apart and foetus as well as mother’s body was burnt in the fire. BJP’s Mayaben Kodnani is currently in jail in this connection.
Naroda Gam (Ahmedabad): Eleven Muslims were killed on February 28, 2002. BJP’s Mayaben Kodnani and VHP leader Jaideep Patel have been arrested in this case and are currently in jail.
Prantij (Sabarkantha district): Five persons, including two British nationals, Saeed and Shakil, their childhood friend Mohammed Aswat and driver of their car, were burnt to death near Prantij town of Sabarkantha district on February 28, 2002. The rioters had stopped their car and set it afire when they were returning to Gujarat after a visit to Agra in Uttar Pradesh.
Dipada Darwaza or Visnagar (Mehsana district): Eleven members of a family were done to death by a mob near Dipada Darwaza in Visnagar town of Mehsana district on February 28, 2002. With a view to destroying evidence, the culprits dumped the bodies in a lake situated in a Hindu area.
Sardarpura (Mehsana district): Thirty three persons, mostly women and children, taking shelter in a house were burnt alive in Sardarpura village of Mehsana district on March 1, 2002.