Reassuring Verdicts

The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) has issued the following statement on August 30, 2012 on conviction of the accused in the Naroda Patiya riot case in Gujarat:

The CPI welcomes the verdict of the special court on August 29, 2012 convicting former BJP minister Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case in Gujarat along with 30 others. The court found BJP MLA Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi guilty under Sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of the IPC in the post-Godhra riots case in which 97 people belonging to the minority community had lost their lives.

The state government misused the state administration to get the culprits exonerated.  The Supreme Court appointed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2008 at the request of Zakia Jafri and the NHRC. The Supreme Court has gone to great lengths in bringing the powerful vested interests before law by setting up the SIT.

The verdict clearly vindicates the secular parties’ stand that Gujarat chief  minister and the state machinery were behind the post-Godhra killings.  This is probably the first case in Modi’s Gujarat where conviction has taken place on the powerful personalities, who were involved in the attacks on minorities.

CPI also welcomes the Supreme Court judgment on Ajmal Kasab, who is responsible for killing a large number of innocent people in Mumbai, as part of terrorist onslaught on India.