The Gujarat high court had on April 20 last year upheld the conviction of 12 out of the 29 accused who were pronounced guilty on various charges by the trial court and had acquitted 17 others, including former BJP minister Maya Kodnani.
The three of the total 16 accused were held guilty in an order pronounced on April 20.
Shashikant, an alleged local leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, was one among the 46 accused named in three FIRs lodged at the Naroda Patiya police station in 2002 in connection with the the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.
Narendra Modi will find it impossible to wash away the bloodstains from Independent India's worst state-sponsored pogrom. His image will remain sullied no matter how many Sadbhavna campaigns he organises, says Praful Bidwai.
A special court, hearing the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, on Wednesday directed the special investigation team to further probe the role of four senior police officers in the "larger interest of justice", based on the phone call records provided by the victims.
During the procession that lasted for more than three-and-half hours, he passed through 14 assembly constituencies.
Terming as "infructuous", the Supreme Court on Tuesday closed as many as 11 petitions, including the one filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), almost 20 years ago seeking an independent probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.
The wife of alleged conman Kiran Patel, who was held in Jammu and Kashmir for posing as a top official in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), was arrested on Tuesday for trying to usurp a senior citizen's bungalow in Ahmedabad, officials said.
NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only MLA to win from the party.
The BJP has done extremely well in the Patidar-dominated constituencies of the state, winning almost every seat that has significant Patel population.
The seven others who Kodnani wanted to be summoned as witnesses are former BJP MLA Amrish Patel, Jagdish Patel, Lakhabhai Rathod, Dhaval Shah, Dhiraj Rathod, M D Lakhiya and Kantibhai Solanki.
He told the court that he had met Kodnani at Sola Civil Hospital that morning.
Like other cities of Gujarat, voters of this bustling urban centre have been standing firmly behind the saffron party since the early 90s.
We present the full text of suspended Gujarat police official Sanjiv Bhatt's open letter to Chief Minister Narendra Modi:
A single judge bench of the Gujarat high court on Tuesday recused itself from hearing a plea by former state minister Maya Kodnani, convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patia riot case, seeking regular bail on the ground of her ill-health.
The Gujarat high court on Thursday granted bail to former minister Maya Kodnani, who was convicted and sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment in the 2002 Naroda Paitya riots case in which 97 people were killed.
A total of 833 candidates from 61 political parties, including Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party, are contesting the polls in these assembly segments spread across Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Gandhinagar and other districts.
At least 25 persons, including activist Mallika Sarabhai, were detained as 2002 Gujarat riot victims were on Sunday barred from protesting against Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the second day of his fast for communal harmony.
The bench hailed the work done so far by the SIT and allowed the request of Salve, while asking A K Malhotra, another member of the SIT, to oversee the functioning of the probe team.
A former television journalist was allegedly attacked by a convict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, who was out on parole, when she went to meet him regarding a book she is writing.
A local court in Ahmedabad on Saturday sent former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani accused in 2002 riot cases to 24-hour police custody and remanded co-accused former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel to judicial custody.
On the final day of the Gujarat election, Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore takes a day-long tour of Juhapura in Vejalpur (dominated by India's biggest minority), Naroda Patiya in Naroda (with an explosive mix of the majority and minority communities) and Maninagar (dominated by the majority community) in Ahmedabad. This is what he discovered.
Kodnani is an accused in the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya case. Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaideep Patel, another key accused in the Naroda Gam case behind bars, was also granted bail.
Three persons were arrested by the Special Investigation Team in connection with three different cases of the post-Godhra riots, SIT sources said.Subhashchandra Darji was arrested in connection with the Naroda Patiya case where 89 people where killed by a mob during the 2002 riots.Darji was part of the mob and instigated the rioters that had attacked the minority community members living in Naroda area, SIT sources alleged.
The Gujarat high court on Thursday granted two-day temporary bail to Babu Bajrangi, sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, as his wife is undergoing a surgery. A division bench of Justices M R Shah and S H Vora allowed Bajrangi's plea, filed and argued by his son Viren Babubhai Patel. He would be out of jail on April 20 and 21.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to extend the interim bail granted to former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, who has been convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case.
Where does one find a man who shows no bitterness or animosity towards Hindus, even after a frenzied Hindu mob burnt his house down?, Jyoti Punwani asks in this tribute to a truly extraordinary Indian.
The Gujarat high court on Monday rejected the Special Investigation Team's plea seeking cancellation of bail of Babu Bajrangi, former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader and an accused in the 2002 Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam riot cases. The petition by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, filed in August last year, was rejected by Justice R H Shukla.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will consider on Thursday the plea to extend the temporary bail granted to former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, on medical grounds as she was in a "pitiable" condition after suffering burn injury.
Indian Police Service officer G L Singhal, prime suspect in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, has been issued a warning by a court hearing the Naroda Patiya riot case after he failed to appear before it despite summons.
The Gujarat high court on Monday allowed the Special Investigation Team to take voice samples of the two accused in the Naroda Gam case for matching it with the audio-video evidence in the case.Justice M R Shah, hearing the SIT's appeal challenging the special riot court's order, allowed the agency to collect voice samples of Babu Bajrangi and former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel, accused in the Naroda Gam case.
Political observers feel that Kodnani's arrest will help the Bharatiya Janata Party project a more 'secular and fair' image.
The Supreme Court on Monday extended till February 24 the interim bail to former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case, but made it clear that it won't be further extended if she fails to file an affidavit stating the kind of burn injury she suffered.
Maya Kodnani, former minister in the Narendra Modi government and an accused in the 2002 riot cases, was on Thursday sent to judicial custody after a local court rejected the application of the Special Investigation Team for extending police remand.Kodnani, who is an accused in the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya case, in which over 106 people were killed during the post-Godhra riots, was produced in the court after her police custody ended today.
The hearing on the bail application of former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, an accused in the 2002 riots, was on Friday adjourned till April 27 by a court in Ahmedabad.Kodnani had applied for regular bail after her police remand ended last week. She is an accused in the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya cases, where 106 people of the minority community were killed by a mob on February 28, 2002.
The Gujarat government has refused permission to the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team to file an appeal in a higher court seeking death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya riot case.
The Centre, in its affidavit filed in the apex court on Sunday, has also said that trial of these cases should be held outside Gujarat.
A purported video of the incident went viral on social media, prompting the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party to demand action against Naroda constituency MLA Balram Thawani, who has apologised. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also condemned the incident.
The Supreme Court has put a question mark over the role of state police in the Naroda Patiya riots case. \n
Most Amdavadis that Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore met were unaware of Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's outreach programme that kick-starts on Wednesday.