Maya Kodnani permitted to examine Amit Shah in Gujarat riots case

In an application, the former BJP minister has sought that summons be issued to 14 persons, including Shah as her defence witnesses.

Former Gujarat BJP minister Maya Kodnani has been granted permission to examine BJP national president Amit Shah and 13 others in connection with the 2002 Naroda Gram massacre case. A special court hearing the matter permitted Maya an accused in the case to examine 14 persons including the BJP's national president.

In the order the special court judge, Pranav B Desai said, "It is ordered that witness summons be issued on the persons particularized in the application, at the appropriate and relevant stage of the trial."

The judge said that the Special Investigation Team had not filed a reply or objection to the application made by Maya despite being given time.

"In the absence of any objections 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. In the event and more particularly when the prosecution has not raised any serious objection whatsoever to the present application, I am of the opinion that the application is required to be allowed," the court said.

In the application filed by the former BJP minister, she sought that summons be issued to 14 persons including Shah as her defence witness. She said that she wanted to prove that on February 28 2002, the day the riots broke out in Naroda Gram and Naroda Patiya, she was present in the Gujarat legislative assembly. She said after that she was present at Sola civil hospital, her home at Asarva, the civil hospital in Asarva and the then her home.

She says that she met with Shah in the assembly as well as the Sola civil hospital. Maya was accused of leading and inciting a mob. She was held guilty in the Naroda Patiya case and sentenced to life imprisonment. However on the orders of the high court she has been out on bail since July 2014.

OneIndia News