Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah on Monday appeared before the special designated court in connection with Naroda Gam case in which former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani is accused.
Shah submitted before the court that Kodnani was in Gujarat Assembly and later on Sola Civil Hospital on February 28, 2002 and not at Naroda Gam. Kodnani is one of the key accused in Naroda Gam case where 11 persons killed in riots that broke out across the State after S6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra in Central Gujarat was burned and 58 people charred.
Adhering to his statement that Kodnani’s presence at the State Assembly and sola civil hospital, Shah maintained that he visited the hospital as it was coming under his Assembly constituency where the bodies of Godhra train massacre victims had been brought in 2002. Kodnani was seen there consoling families of those killed in Godhra attack when he reached there, said the BJP chief.
Shah appeared before the court following summons issued to him after Kodnani claimed that despite repeated attempts she had failed to get the BJP chief to depose as her defence witness. She wanted him to appear and prove her alibi that she was not present at the scene of violence but in the Assembly and at Sola civil hospital. She is one of the 82 accused.
Naroda Gam case is one of the nine major cases of 2002 riots that happened post Godhara carnage in which 58 Kar Sevaks were charred to death.