Naroda Patia case: Kodnani was in Assembly when Naroda massacre took place, Amit Shah tells court

Former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani was in the Gujarat Assembly at the time of Gujarat riots, BJP president Amit Shah to a special designated court on Monday.

Appeared before as Maya Kodnani's witness in the Naroda Gam riot case, Shah said that the former Gujarat minister was not present in Naroda Gam on the day riots broke out.

When asked if Maya Kodnani was present in the assembly, Shah disposed off saying, she was inside the state assembly at 8.30 am. From 9:30 am to 9:45 am I was at the Civil Hospital and I met Maya Kodnani there," Amit Shah was quoted as saying.

"I was not allowed entry into the post-mortem room. I met with family members of the Godhra victims whose post mortem and identification was completed. There were several Karyakartas with me, people were angry and were raising slogans when I was coming out of the hospital,"he added.

"I was at the hospital for quite some time. I remember seeing Jaideep Patel and other leaders. I tried to pacify the crowd but they surrounded me, Police had to take me and Mayaben (Maya Kodnani) away from the spot in one of their jeeps. This was around 11 - 11:15 am," Shah said.

"I came to know about the Godhra incident only when the home minister announced it in the assembly. I don't exactly remember where I was sitting when Maya Kodnani arrived at the hospital but the police did cordon us and take us away for protection,"he further said.

"We did speak about appearing as a witness in case but the SIT has not bothered to ask me whether I was with her on February 28, 2002, or not, " he said.

On September 14, Shah was summoned by a special SIT court to appear as a defence witness for former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, a prime accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case.

Kodnani has claimed that on the day of the incident she had visited Sola civil hospital where Shah, who was an MLA at that time, was also present.

Shah is among the list of 14 defence witnesses summoned by the court. Twelve persons have already given their testimony while the thirteenth was not examined as a witness.

The massacre in Naroda Gam in Ahmedabad is one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases which were investigated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). Eleven persons belonging to the minority community were killed in Naroda Gam in the 2002 riots, during a bandh called to protest the Godhra train burning incident.

Kodnani, who was then a minister in the Narendra Modi-led state government, has already been convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the case of riot at Naroda Patiya where 97 people were massacred.

OneIndia News