Zakia Jafri's lawyer on Friday alleged before a court here that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had conspired to instigate Vishwa Hindu Parishad workers and other members of Hindu community after the Godhra train burning incident in 2002.
Security has been stepped up in the city and Godhra town in wake of the 10th anniversary of the Sabarmati Express train carnage, which killed 59 people and triggered large-scale communal violence in many parts of Gujarat in 2002 claiming over 1200 lives.
Under renewed attack over the post-Godhra riots, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he was opposed to that violence and still denounces them.
'In the history of India this kind of scores and ranks has never happened in exams.'
Congress president M Mallikarjun Kharge, meanwhile, came to Siddaramaiah's defence, stating that the party is standing with him and will support him.
The Gujarat government was "complicit and acted in tandem with one of the convicts", the SC said.
Critical of then BJP-led Central government, Bhandari claimed the Modi's removal would have prevented the situation from deteriorating.
The petitioner, Mukul Sinha of Jan Sangarsh Manch, wants to cross-examine Zaheera in connection with an affidavit filed by her before the commission.
"Taking note of this unreasonable stand of the Union government... it will now be open to the commission to draw its own inferences with respect to the (President's) letters (written to the then PM A B Vajpayee)'', the pnel said.
The Commission has not given any time frame for the President's office to give the letters.
The commission will visit the Godhra railway station and inspect the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express during its one-day visit.
A fast-track court in Mehsana had acquitted all the 27 accused on June 14, 2005.
Justice U C Banerjee, who had described the Godhra train carnage as "accidental", said he will stand by his inquiry commission report "200 per cent."
The team comprises fire and other technical experts and they will probe the exact cause of the fire inside the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002.
The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice U C Banerjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi after a Cabinet meeting.
"The mood of the nation is sober. If we can take the Ayodhya judgment in our stride, we can very well pass through the Godhra judgment peacefully. I am very confident." says Kamal Farooqui, member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Tuesday said it was disappointed by the Gujarat court's decision to award death penalty to only 11 convicts in the Godhra train burning case and asked the state government to appeal against the verdict.
Krishnakumar Padmanabhan finds hope, despair and anger in Godhra.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the circulation of Justice G T Nanavati's report about the Godhra carnage in Gujarat.The NGO, Citizen for Justice and Peace, approached the apex court contending that a report by Justice U C Banerjee Committee on the same carnage has been stayed and a similar step should be taken for the Justice Nanavati Commission Report, which was tabled in the Gujarat assembly on Thursday.
The religious leader and cleric from Godhra is the main accused in the Godhra train carnage.
The VHP and Shiv Sena have planned various programmes to mark the occasion.
The Gujarat government sought a postponement urging the Commission to invite the public to file affidavits about riot incidents that occurred between April 1 and May 31, 2002 since the terms of reference had been expanded recently.
Maulvi Hussain Umarji, the cleric who was branded as the key conspirator of the 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage but was later acquitted, died in Godhra after a prolonged illness, his family said on Monday. Umarji, 65, who had been bed-ridden since his acquittal in February 2011, passed away on Sunday night.
Maulana Hussain Umarji was arrested at Signal Falia near the Godhra railway station.
They said the agency is also taking steps to bring under its ambit cases registered in various states by the police.
Arun Jaitley, one of the BJP's seniormost leaders and a friend of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in an exclusive conversation with Sheela Bhatt.
'When the incident took place we were in the opposition. We hardly know anything about it. We will study the facts to know the truth,' the railway minister said.
A special trial court in Gujarat on Friday acquitted all six accused in the 2002 post-Godhra riots case in which three British nationals and their Indian driver were killed at Prantij town in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district, for want of evidence against them.
The review plea filed by Ramesh Rupabhai Chandana said the top court erred while passing the impugned order and overruling judgment dated May 13, 2022, passed by another bench of the apex court.
As a consequence of prominence given to the brutality during those few days, a very important aspect of that episode got almost glossed over. This was the intervention by a very significant section of people who restored faith in humanity, and conveyed the message that only a small section of Indians, that too politically backed, were consumed by anti-Sikh majoritarianism. The overlooked facet of the events of 1984 was the story of significant sections of the city's populace, public figures and nondescript ones, stepping out hand-in-hand, to first stand with little but bravery in hands, in the way of attackers, and thereafter to provide immediate relief to those who lives were uprooted and who lost family members in the violence, recalls Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
Gujarat: 11 get life imprisonment for post-Godhra riot
The year 2011 will be remembered in Gujarat for verdicts related to the Godhra train burning incident and the riots that followed.
The Gujarat High Court on Monday dismissed a petition challenging the Central Pota Review Committee's recommendation of dropping Prevention of Terrorism Act charges against the accused in Godhra train carnage case. With this decision, nearly 134 accused in the Godhra train burning case will not be tried under the repealed anti-terror law.
Godhra commission asks President office to decide on letters
A two-member commission headed by Justice G T Nanavati on Thursday submitted the first part of its report on the 2002 Sabarmati train carnage in Godhra and subsequent riots to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The commission, appointed by the Modi government after the worst-ever riots in the state and comprising retired Justices Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, examined more than 1,000 witness during the period of six years.
The documents, which Sinha had asked, include the letter written by Narayanan to Vajpayee on the steps being taken to control the Godhra riots.\n
Setting aside the trial court order acquitting the accused, the Gujarat high court on Thursday sentenced eleven persons to life imprisonment for the murder of two persons during a 2002 post-Godhra riot at Meda Adraj village in Mehsana district.
