Mail Today
21 January 2008
Trial of Gujarat riot cases going nowhere
17 cases pending, including killings at Naroda Patia
By Gyanant Singhin New Delhi
The Bilkis Bano and Best Bakery cases ended in convictions in Mumbai. But at least 17 other cases relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots are still gathering dust.
The Supreme Court, which had ordered retrial in the Best Bakery case and transfer of the Bilkis Bano case, has yet to decide the fate of cases filed for eight major incidents during the infamous post-Godhra riots.
Trial in most of the 17 cases has been pending over the past four years when the apex court stayed proceedings following allegations of complicity of the state government in the riots. The court had stayed trial in 10 cases in November 2003 and some others in August 2004 on petitions seeking transfer of the cases outside Gujarat.
Even after six years, trial in most of the cases that relate to murderous attacks in Gulberg Housing Society, Naroda Patia, Ode and Sardarpura are pending.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Citizens for Justice and Peace, an NGO, had moved the court for transfer of the cases and re-investigation to ensure a fair trial. The NHRC has sought transfer of 13 cases. The state government, however, has been contending that a case cannot be transferred on mere apprehensions of unfair trial.
Teesta Setalvad, who has been pursuing the cases, said the delay was harming evidence. Last year, the matter was listed once on May 7 after amicus curiae Harish Salve filed written submissions.
Salve has suggested that probe into the Gulberg and Ode cases be handed over to the CBI.
In October last year, the NGO informed the court about the Tehelka-Aaj Tak exposé on the riots. The court, on October 29, stated that the matter would be taken up in due course.
Teesta said witnesses were getting restless because the cases were neither taken up in the Gujarat courts or outside the state. They had written to the amicus curiae on the delay, she added.
The NGO had filed around 65 affidavits by victims and witnesses, she added.
There was a silver lining, though. A large number of cases, which had been closed by the police in Gujarat, were re-opened after the mater reached the apex court, she said.
The NGO, which was also involved in the Best Bakery and Bilkis cases, is opposing this piecemeal solution.
After the acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case, the court had ordered re-trial in Mumbai and the acquittal was reversed. The Bilkis case, transferred by the apex court, also led to conviction.
However, the Gulberg Society case is yet to see any development. On February 28, 2002, a mob attacked and set fire to the shops and houses of people belonging to the minority community in the Gulberg housing society. As many as 39 people, including ex-MP Ehsan Jafri, lost their lives and 31 have been listed as missing. The victims claim that 70 people lost their lives in the mayhem.
Witnesses claim police commissioner P. C. Pandey, who was later appointed as the DGP, visited the area and got the mob disbursed. He left the place assuring Jafri that they would be protected. But police did not come forward to help them. Court proceedings in the case have been stayed by the Supreme Court and out of the 55 accused, 41 are out on bail.
Similar is the fate of the cases related to the killings at Naroda Patia. A mob killed 91 people near the Noorani Masjid in Patia. As many as 18 people, including women and children, were alleged to have been burnt alive. There are 45 accused in the case.
An eye-witness Abdul Majid Mohd Usman Shaikh has claimed that seven members of his family were killed and his daughter raped. He alleged that policemen kept watching as the rioters went on rampage. Another witness alleged that police fired only at Muslims. The government has refuted the allegations saying police fired in both directions in which one Hindu and one Muslim was killed.
gyanant.singh@mailtoday.in
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