Though the Supreme Court has cleared all hurdles in the way of pronouncing the judgments in nine major Gujarat riot cases but it still might take a considerable time for the trial proceedings to come to an end in eight of them due to the raging controversy over examination of certain “crucial” witnesses.
The trial proceedings were over only in the Godhra train burning case relating to the killing of 59 “Kar Sevaks” returning from Ayodhya, which had triggered the widespread violence in Gujarat on February 28.
The trial court had reserved its judgement in the case almost a year ago and after the apex court’s green signal it us expected soon.
Besides, the top court had given permission to the trial judges to pronounce the verdicts in the Sardarpura, Narodao Gaam, Naroda Patia, Baranpura, Machipith, Pandarwada Tarsali and Raghavapura cases relating to the killing of hundreds of people, mentioned by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its petition.
However, the top court continued stay on the verdict in the Gulberga society massacre, in which Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was one of the victims, as the apex court has yet to take a final view on his widow Zakia Jafri’s petition seeking investigation against state chief minister Narendra Modi and 59 other important persons, including top civil and police officers. NGO, Citizen for Justice and Peace (CJP) in its applications and affidavits has raised the issue of SIT “not examining” of a large number of witnesses.
As per the NGO documents submitted to the apex court in Sardarpura case, six “crucial” witnesses, including some police personnel who allegedly had the “prior knowledge” of some meetings where conspiracy to attack the minorities was hatched, were not sent for recording their evidence while the trial court had examined 157 witnesses. SIT had chargesheeted 75 accused in the case.
Similarly, in Naroda Gam case, in which the SIT filed nine chargesheets, two witnesses were left out, the CJP alleged. It added that in Naroda Patia case also some “important witnesses” including some police officials were not examined.
In Naroda Patia case, the Gujarat police had originally registered FIR against 62 accused but the SIT after fresh investigation added 25 more in the list and in the process the number of witnesses in the eight chargesheets filed by it went up to 637 whereas the state police had only mentioned 30 witnesses. But the SIT had recorded the evidence of only 255 witnesses so far, the CJP documents indicate.