Naroda Patia massacre was a preplanned conspiracy: Court

AHMEDABAD: The special SIT court on Wednesday held that the killing of 97 persons at Naroda Patia was the result of a preplanned conspiracy.
This is the third of SIT-prosecuted post-Godhra riots cases, wherein the court has accepted the prosecution's contention that the riots were not spontaneous reaction to the Godhra carnage, rather they were actually a result of meeting of minds to target members of the minority community.Earlier, two special courts in Anand had upheld the prosecution's case that criminal conspiracy was hatched by the accused persons before the killings that took place in Ode town in the aftermath of the Godhra incident.
In Naroda Patia massacre case, the defence lawyers maintained that it was reaction of killing of 57 kar sevaks at Godhra a day earlier and the atmosphere was communally charged. They submitted before the court that the spread of word was like virus during that time in Gujarat.
However, prosecutors Akhil Desai and Gaurang Vyas highlighted that most of the members of unlawful assembly were armed with weapons. They had argued that many of them were found in possession of alcohol pouches and chavanu. Presence of canisters filled with inflammables with the members of the mob could not have happened without planning, they submitted. To drive its point home about the conspiracy theory, the prosecution also argued that the rioters had put up obstacles on road so as to prevent cops or relief from reaching the victims.
In its verdict, the court has convicted persons like Maya Kodnani, then BJ P MLA who was not even witnessed as having assaulted anybody, of murder, attempt to murder, and assault. This is primarily because the court has ordered the charges under the sections 302, 307, 295, 427, 435, 436 of IPC to be read with sections 120B and 149 of IPC.
In two other cases of Sardarpura and Dipda Darwaja massacres, the SIT court declined to believe that there was any conspiracy hatched. However, another SIT court that heard the Godhra carnage case accepted the prosecution's case of preplanned conspiracy to burn the bogie.