'His 2003 visit to the UK was a nerve-racking and politically fraught affair, writes Satyabrata Pal, who was India’s Deputy High Commissioner in London at the time... Throughout 2002, after the Gujarat riots, the British media was up in arms, particularly since a family of Indian origin was among the Muslim victims. The Conservatives demanded that the Labour government live up to its claim that it ran an ethical foreign policy, Amnesty and other human rights organisations were on the warpath, the NRIs were split down the middle, and the bilateral relationship came under strain.
'Narendra Modi’s forthcoming visit to Britain is still weeks away but it has already become a subject of heated debate in Cambridge University with the vice-chancellor facing pressure to withdraw his invitation to the Indian prime minister to address the Senate, its most important academic body. A group of students and faculty members have written to the VC Leszek Borysiewicz protesting his decision arguing that by inviting him the university would be seen condoning “ongoing attacks on academic freedom and freedom of expression in India’’.
'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.
'Amidst alleged threats to judge Ms Jyotsna Yagnik who had convicted Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and others for their involvement in the Gujarat 2002 riots, a former judge has now come forward and claimed that he and other judges were tried to be pressurized by the state government (then ruled by Narendra Modi as chief minister) to act against the minority community following the riots.
"The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seemed to have got what they wanted. A Mumbai court on Friday turned down the anticipatory bail plea of social activist, Teesta Setalvad, and her husband Javed Anand in a CBI probe into alleged violations of Foreign Contributions Regulatory Act (FCRA) in the running of her non-governmental organisation, the Sabrang Trust. However, within hours, the Bombay high court extended Setalvad’s interim bail. But, the conflict is far from over.
"The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday extended the bail of Babubhai Patel alias Babu Bajrangi, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre, for ten days with a condition that he would not seek further extension. Bagrangi is on temporary bail for three months which ends on July 24. This relief had been granted for his eye treatment. Eventually, Bajrangi has stated in his application seeking further extension of bail for a month that he has lost his eyes.
'Babu Bajrangi, sentenced to life in prison in a 2002 Gujarat riots case, has been granted bail for the sixth time by the state's High Court on medical grounds, this time for 10 days. The former Bajrang Dal leader has spent more than 125 days out on bail since his conviction in 2012; he has been granted bail for reasons ranging from a niece's wedding to medical grounds. The Bajrang Dal is an organisation affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, the BJP's ideological mentor.
"The victim-witnesses of Gulbarg Society massacre case stated before the special SIT court on Thursday that dereliction of duty on the part of then police commissioner P C Pande and then DCP P B Gondia had resulted in the murder of 69 persons at the housing society during the riots of 2002. The witnesses have demanded that Pande, Gondia, then joint police commissioner M K Tandon, and former investigator S S Chudasama be made accused in the massacre case... The lawyer of the victims, S M Vora, submitted that Pande and three others did not take sufficient action to protect lives.
