Naroda Patiya case: Kodnani moves HC to call Shah as witness

The Gujarat High Court has sought the SIT's stand on former BJP minister Maya Kodnani's plea to summon BJP president Amit Shah and seven others as additional witnesses in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case against her.

A bench of justices Harsha Devani and Biren Vaishnav asked on Wednesday the Special Investigation Team (SIT), formed by the Supreme Court to probe Gujarat riots cases, to file its reply to Kodnani's plea for summoning the eight as witnesses for adducing additional evidence "in the interest of justice."

The seven others who Kodnani wanted to be summoned as witnesses are former BJP MLA Amrish Patel, Jagdish Patel, Lakhabhai Rathod, Dhaval Shah, Dhiraj Rathod, M D Lakhiya and Kantibhai Solanki.

"In the interest of justice, it is important to summon these additional witnesses, whom the prosecution dropped during the trial in a special SIT court, so that additional evidence can be recorded by the court," Kodnani's lawyer Nirupam Nanavati said. The high court is hearing the appeals of Kodnani and other convicts in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in which 96 people were killed.

Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years in jail by a special SIT court which had adjudicated the Naroda Patiya massacre case. She is currently out on bail. A special SIT court hearing another 2002 Gujarat riot case of Naroda Gam, involving Kodnani too as an accused, had recently allowed her plea to call Shah and 13 others as defence witnesses to prove that she was not present at the scene of the crime.