'A special SIT judge hearing the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case, in which former BJP minister Maya Kodnani is an accused, has been transferred as principal district judge of Valsad by an order of the Gujarat High Court. According to a notification issued by the Gujarat High Court on Friday, principal judge, city civil court, Ahmedabad, M.K. Dave has been transferred as principal judge of Valsad district. He will be replaced by S.K. Baxi, who served as principal district judge, Bhavnagar, before being transferred here...'
'Citing spiritual and moral guidance, the Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to 15 convicts in the post-Godhra Sardarpura riot case in Gujarat wherein 33 members of a particular community were burnt alive. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and comprising Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant has put them in two groups -- six of them will remain in Indore and the rest will go to Jabalpur. They will however not be allowed to enter Gujarat...'
'In a nation known for its collective amnesia, it is important to restate names, characters and situations. Forgetting these can jeopardise free thought and the very idea of justice. One such name is Babubhai Patel alias Babu Bajrangi. He is a member of the Gujarat unit of the Bajrang Dal and his notoriety lies in the fact that he confessed (during a sting operation) to have actively participated in the killing of men, women and children in Naroda Patiya – an Ahmedabad neighbourhood witness to the worst rioting in February 2002, leading to the deaths of 97 people.
'The Gujarat high court on Friday acquitted former BJP minister Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya massacre case. She had earlier been found guilty of conspiracy by a trial court in the massacre in which 97 Muslims were killed during the Gujarat riots...
'Human rights activists and environment campaigners have criticised the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying their efforts have led to harassment and other reprisals since it took power more than a year ago. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled Greenpeace's permit to operate in India on Friday, in the latest move against nongovernmental organisations.
'On Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Sanjiv Bhatt, the former Indian Police Service officer from Gujarat, asking for two police cases against him to be transferred out of Gujarat and investigated by an independent agency. Bhatt said he feared the state was trying to falsely implicate him since he had given testimony against Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat. One of those two cases pertained to a complaint filed by Tushar Mehta, then Additional Advocate General of Gujarat, alleging that Bhatt had hacked into his email account.
'On Tuesday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Sanjiv Bhatt, the former Indian Police Service officer from Gujarat, asking for two police cases against him to be transferred out of Gujarat and investigated by an independent agency. Bhatt said he feared the state was trying to falsely implicate him since he had given testimony against Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat. One of those two cases pertained to a complaint filed by Tushar Mehta, then Additional Advocate General of Gujarat, alleging that Bhatt had hacked into his email account...'
'Zakia Jafri, a frail 76-year-old, has begun what may be the last legal battle to pin blame on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for deadly riots that shook Gujarat when he was chief minister, and claimed her husband's life. Modi denies any involvement in the 2002 unrest, one of the worst outbreaks of religious violence in independent India. In 2013, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. It was the third investigation to come to the same conclusion.
'One police official saw his promising career flatline and was dogged by minor misconduct charges until he took early retirement this year. Another endured a long suspension before being fired last month, but not before a sex video surfaced that purported to show him with a mistress. (Apart from the receding hairline and healthy mustache, his wife said, he looked nothing like the man on screen.) A third faces a possible inquiry into decade-old charges of disclosing sensitive information. It could cost him his pension.
