The Gujarat high court on Friday refused to direct the Nanavati Commission, which is probing the post-Godhra riots, to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi. A division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala refused to interfere in the proceedings of the commission.
A sadhvi who travelled in the ill-fated Sabarmati Exress told Godhra Commission that the train was stopped for some youths who had been left behind on Godhra station.
The compensation package for Gujarat riot victims will keep them on par with the measures taken in respect of victims of the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. The next of kin of 1,169 people killed in the riots would be paid Rs 3.5 lakh ex-gratia in addition to the amount paid by the state government, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after the cabinet meeting in New Delhi.
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre and the Gujarat government on a plea challenging the remission granted to 11 life convicts in the case of Bilkis Bano's gangrape and murder of her family members.
The incident of burning S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, which triggered off violent riots in Gujarat, was a pre-planned conspiracy and not an accident, according to the first part of the Godhra Commission report.
The issue related to the petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission, which sought transfer of the trial of the riots' cases outside Gujarat and re-investigation by an independent agency. The NHRC had filed the petition after several witnesses turned hostile amidst allegations of threat, coercion and inducement to derail the investigation.AA three-member bench said it would pass necessary orders on Wednesday for constituting the SIT.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing on Thursday a clutch of petitions challenging the remission granted to all 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Twelve witnesses identified Zabir Bin Yamin Behra, who has been charged under Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The government had appealed the grant of bail by high court to four accused in the Godhra carnage.
The Gujarat Government has challenged a high court order granting bail to certain accused persons in the Godhra train burning incident.
The prosecution on Friday sought death penalty for all the 31 convicts in the Godhra train carnage case in a special court in Ahmedabad which reserved till March 1 the pronouncement of quantum of punishment for them.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state, saying the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.
Some BJP workers in the area have expressed unhappiness over her candidature.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred to May 9 the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted to the 11 convicts last year in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt was in the courtroom at the Sabarmati Jail where the judgment in the Godhra train burning case was pronounced on Tuesday. She has also followed and written about the twists and turns in the historic nine-year legal battle. Her impressions and analysis of the verdict.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) will challenge before the Gujarat high court the recent acquittal of all 67 accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case by a special court, sources said.
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain the Narendra Modi government's plea for staying the Gujarat high court's February 8 order to pay compensation to over 500 shrines damaged during the infamous 2002 riots in the wake of the Godhra train carnage. While declining to entertain the plea, a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra also asked the state government to furnish details of the number of religious structures actually damaged.
The petition said there was need for constituting a commission of inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the high court, as neither the Centre nor the state government has taken appropriate action over the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the incident and the riots in 2002.
Godhra municipality councillor Salim Abdul Gaffar Sheikh has been accused of being at the spot, armed with lethal weapons, where the Sabarmati Express was burned down.
They were found guilty of killing 14 Muslims in Ginjar village in Ghodasar area on the outskirts of Nadiad on March 3, 2002.
On March 1, 2002, two days after the Godhra carnage, a mob attacked Best Bakery in Vadodara, looting and burning it down and killing 14 people. The mob targeted the Muslims inside, including the Shaikh family that ran the bakery.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand to cooperate with the Gujarat Police in connection with a case filed against them over alleged misappropriation of funds.
A former British envoy has deposed before a special court through video conferencing in connection with a post-Godhra riot case, where four persons, including three British nationals, were killed in Sabarkantha district.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi took all possible steps to control the 2002 post-Godhra riots and questioned the motive behind filing a complaint against him by a riot victim four years after the communal violence.
In a relief to Narendra Modi, the Gujarat high court on Wednesday rejected a petition seeking directions to the Nanavati Commission to summon the state chief minister for questioning in connection with the 2002 riots.
Gujarat BJP leaders on Friday said if the physician-turned-politician, once a member of the powerful Narendra Modi ministry in the state and rising star in politics, wants to return to active politics, the saffron party will definitely assign work to her.
The Narendra Modi government was on Wednesday pulled up by the Gujarat high court for "inaction and negligence" on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures. A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.
A group of activists will mark the tenth anniversary of the Godhra carnage and the ensuing communal riots in Gujarat at the memorial at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28.
The Nanavati Commission has indicated it may submit its final report with regard to the 2002 post-Godhra riots by the end of March 2012, the state government told the Gujarat high court on Thursday.
A local court in Ahmedabad acquitted 29 persons on Tuesday, accused in a 2002 riot case in Abasana village of Detroj taluka of the district, where six people of minority community were killed.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday a plea by social activist Teesta Setalvad challenging the Gujarat high court order which had rejected her plea for regular bail and directed her to surrender immediately in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
Eleven convicts walked out of Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release on August 15 this year.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the high-powered Special Investigation Team to probe the role of 64 people, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the post Godhra-riots cases. The team has to submit its report to the apex court within three months.
The BJP enters challenging times where it has been given a task to hold onto the values of Ram in running the country as defined by Narendra Modi in Ayodhya, notes Sheela Bhatt.
The Supreme Court today asked the Special Investigating Committee, headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation director R K Raghavan, to consider whether further probe was required against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 52 others in the complaint filed by Jakia Jafri, widow of former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, who was burnt alive in post Godhra riots.
The three were part of a crowd that attacked minorities in Madhavpura area of the city and brutally killed a pregnant woman.
Pandit, who was appointed as the JNU VC in February last year, said some people opposed her decision to put the national flag and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photo on the varsity premises.
Danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, noted Bengali litterateur Mahashweta Devi and ad guru Alyque Padamsee have sought an independent inquiry into the Gujarat riots.
"Law is supposed to be a noble profession," the Supreme Court observed on Thursday, and voiced surprise over how can one of the convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots practise law after his conviction, the remission of his sentence notwithstanding.
Diwali celebrations have started in the United States from the iconic Times Square in New York, with the United States Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump celebrating the festival of lights at their residences on Friday.
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