Govind Nai was the prime accused in the Referral hospital murder case.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday extended interim protection from arrest till July 19 to activist Teesta Setalvad in a case linked to the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Eleven persons from Muslim community killed in violence in Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad during the bandh call given by right-wing organisations a day after the Godhra train burning incident.
Alleged Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist Sunil Joshi wanted to kill Justice U C Banerjee who headed an inquiry commission on Godhra train burning case, and had even conducted reconnaissance of his house in Kolkata, according to a witness in the 2006 Malegaon blasts case.
Excerpts of a book written by a former Indian Administrative Service officer have been submitted to the Nanavati-Mehta Commission, probing the post-Godhra riots, by a former Gujarat director general of police saying they contain 'relevant material' for the panel.
Heeding the demand of suspended Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt, Nanavati Commission on Wednesday ordered a high-level inquiry into the alleged destruction of 2002 post-Godhra riot papers.
Shaukat Alias Bhano Pataliya, Rafique Ahmed Ibhrahim alias Bum, and Habib alias Badshah were allegedly part of the mob that attacked the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express.
Father Fredrick Prakash, who runs a non-governmental organisation 'Prashant', told rediff.com that the organisation would be releasing selective audio-visual clippings that reportedly establish Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's complicity in the riots following the burning of Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002
The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed K G Menon, a senior advocate from Mumbai, to assist the Special Investigation Team (SIT) earlier constituted by it for a fresh probe or further investigations into 14 post Godhra riot cases.
The Special Investigation Team that investigated the Godhra train burning incident on Tuesday indicated that it may go in for an appeal against the acquittal of the main accused and 62 others in the case.
The Gujarat high court on Wednesday granted two months' time to the special court to submit case papers of the 2002 Godhra train burning case, in which 11 persons have received death sentence, while 20 others have been awarded life imprisonment.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
The Gujarat high court on Thursday issued a notice to the Special Investigation Team on a petition by a convict sentenced to death in the Godhra train carnage, demanding that additional evidence in form of CDs of a TV sting operation be brought on record
His son Rajesh got charred to death in the torched bogie and his daugher-in-law Chanda walked away with the compensation and two grand daughters, leaving her then six-year-old son Jatin in his grandfather's care.
"The avenues for challenging the Gujarat high court's order are still open, and we will go to the apex court in this regard."
'The cases on hand have no genesis in the act of terrorism or waging war against the state,' the court said.
An Ahmedabad court dismissed an application, on Tuesday, filed by some of the witnesses in Gulburg housing society case of the post-Godhra riots, seeking transfer of the matter to another court on the ground that the current judge was biased.
The comments were made in Rokhthok column of the Sena mouthpiece Saamana which carried the Kadaknath Mumbaikar byline and not of the Marathi daily's executive editor Sanjay Raut.
A sessions court in Gujarat on Monday convicted 23 people and acquitted as many others for want of evidence in connection with the Ode village massacre in 2002 post-Godhra riots.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission by the Gujarat government to 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.
"When an authority does not have the jurisdiction to deal with a matter or it is not within the powers of the authority i.e. the State of Gujarat in the instant case, to be the appropriate Government to pass orders of remission under Section 432 of the CrPC, the orders of remission would have no legs to stand," it added.
POTA court judge Jyotsana Yagnik sentenced 18 of the 22 accused to 10 years imprisonment, while three got nine years and one three years jail term. Out of the 22 convicted 21 are from the city and one from Mumbai.
'The lesson you taught was that you will free the murderers of Bilkis' three-year-old daughter. You also taught us that Ahsan Jafri can be killed. You taught the lesson of Gulbarga bakery, you taught the lesson of Best bakery lesson'
The court has asked UPA not to table the report in Parliament till the court concludes hearing on a petition filed by a relative of a survivor. \n
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred till July 11 the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted last year to all the 11 convicts in the case of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
A large number of Muslims, holding the national tricolour, greeted the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the densely populated Polan Bazaar in Godhra town on Republic Day, president of Ghanchi Muslim Samaj Phirdos Kothi said on Tuesday.
The court also observed that 'in spite of policemen being present when the incident occurred, they could not identify the accused persons and that if they had taken enough precaution the incident could have been prevented'.
The Gujarat high court on Tuesday granted bail to three people who were sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra train burning case which had triggered communal riots in the state.
Additional metropolitan magistrate MV Chauhan committed the case to the sessions court in Ahmedabad for trial against Setalvad, former state director general of police RB Sreekumar and ex-Indian Police Service officer Sanjiv Bhatt.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Dipankar Datta took note of the submissions of lawyer Shobha Gupta that the review plea is yet to be listed.
The Supreme Court on Monday favoured setting up of designated courts for the trial of the accused in the post-Godhra riot cases in Gujarat. A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat asked the state government and senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, to place before it suggestions in this regard by Monday.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that the charges under Prevention of Terrorism Act against 134 accused in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident in Gujarat shall be dropped and the trial can resume against all the accused under the provisions of the IPC.
The clashes occurred during Ganesh festival procession.
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.
Sixty-three people, including the main accused Maulvi Hussain Umarji, acquitted in the 2002 Godhra train burning case, on Wednesday reached their hometown in Gujarat after spending almost eight years in prison.
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 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.
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.