Gujarat HC acquits Maya Kodnani in Naroda Patiya massacre case

The Gujarat High Court today acquitted former BJP leader Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya massacre that occurred in the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra riots, according to news reports..A Bench of Justices Harsha Devani and AS Supehia pronounced the judgment today after reserving it in August last year. The Court was hearing appeals filed by Kodnani and ten others, all of whom had been convicted by a special Special Investigation Team (SIT) court in 2012..Kodnani was found guilty by the SIT court and had been sentenced to imprisonment for 28 years for inciting a mob to exact revenge for the deaths of kar sevaks killed in the Godhra train attacks in 2002..The High Court today upheld the conviction of Bajrang Dal lead Babu Bajrangi, who was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court..In the High Court, the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court appealed for the enhancement of sentence of three convicts, and also appealed against the acquittal of seven accused..The matter was heard by eight different Division Benches of the High Court, following a spate of recusals since 2012. In November 2016, the Bench of the Justices Akil Kureshi and Biren Vaishnav, while recusing, floated the idea of lawyers recusing from the case instead of judges. The order states,.“These appeals have a history of several learned judges of this Court recusing themselves from hearing due to one reason or the other….When such large number of litigants are involved who are represented by large number of advocates, somewhere or the other it is bound to happen that one out of the two judges of the bench may not be taking up the cases of at least one out of the several advocates appearing.. Particularly when the appearance is made by the Senior Advocate at late a stage, we wonder would it not have been better if the advocate had recused rather than to request the Court to do so.”.Senior Advocate ND Nanavaty along with Hardik Dave represented Kodnani. Senior Advocates BB Naik, YS Lakhani and Mihir Desai appeared for various appellants. Senior Advocate Prashant G Desai was Special Public Prosecutor.