Shah testifies as Kodnani witness

Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, September 18

BJP national president Amit Shah appeared in a special CBI court here today as a witness of Mayaben Kodnani, a former minister in the erstwhile Narendra Modi Cabinet and an accused in the 2002 Naroda Gaam massacre, without giving any fresh insight into the case.

Shah, who appeared before designated judge PB Desai, told the court that on the day of the massacre — February 28, 2002 — he had seen Kodnani in the state Assembly in Gandhinagar in the morning and later again at the Sola civil hospital on Ahmedabad’s outskirts.

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Shah said he, however, had no idea where Kodnani was from the time they left the Assembly premises and her appearance at the hospital two hours later. Shah said he also wasn’t aware of her whereabouts once they departed from the hospital around 11 am. The rioting mobs had gathered at Naroda around 10 am on that day and the violence continued till 9 pm. Legal experts pointed out that Shah’s deposition did not support her alibi for the entire day.

Shah’s deposition is a major relief for Kodnani, who is said to be feeling abandoned by the party after conviction in one case. Kodnani is the daughter of a staunch RSS man. Observers believe the reason why the BJP president chose to stand by her today was to douse the allegation of Gujarat-riot accused being left high and dry by the party. Shah was summoned to depose on behalf of Kodnani to substantiate her alibi that at the time of the massacre she was not present at the scene and was attending the  Assembly session. Kodnani then represented Naroda constituency in Ahmedabad. She had claimed that after the Assembly, she had gone to the civil hospital where the bodies of victims of the Godhra train carnage were brought. Kodnani, also a gynaecologist, claimed she later went to her private clinic in Bapunagar, Ahmedabad.

Eleven Muslims were killed in the Naroda Gam area, a day after the Godhra train burning. Both Shah and Kodnani were BJP MLAs in 2002.

The legal experts said Shah’s deposition did not shed any new light on what was already there in the chargesheet filed by the SIT, the prosecuting agency in this case. The SIT from her call records and Assembly records had found that she was present in the Assembly in the morning from where she went to the Sola civil hospital. But while the SIT report claimed that from Sola she went to Naroda, the scene of the two massacres — Naroda-Patiya, in which 97 members of the minority community were killed, and its adjacent Naroda Gaam — Kodnani had claimed that from Sola she had gone to her clinic and was not present at the scene of the carnage.

Shah was among the 12 witnesses listed by Kodnani in her defence. Kodnani has already been awarded 28-year jail and is out on bail.