BJP president Amit Shah has arrived at the Ahmedabad Sessions Court as a defence witness for former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, one of the prime accused in the Naroda Patiya case, media reports said on Monday.

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BJP president Amit Shah has arrived at the Ahmedabad Sessions Court as a defence witness for former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, one of the prime accused in the Naroda Patiya case, media reports said on Monday. According to DNA, Shah is is expected Ahmedabad City Civil and Session Court at the old HC campus at 11 am to present himself as a witness.

On a petition filed by Kodnani, who is the prime accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case, a special SIT court on 12 September summoned the BJP chief to appear before it on Monday.

By summoning Shah and others, including her nursing home and Sola civil hospital staff, Kodnani will attempt to prove she was present at spots such as the Gujarat Assembly, civil hospital, her home, and other places, but not Naroda Gam during the time of riots on 28 February, 2002, Hindustan Times reported.

Maya Kodnani wants to prove she was present in Guj Assembly

She and 31 other convicts have challenged the verdict in the Gujarat High Court which concluded its hearing on 30 August and reserved the verdict.

In 2012, she was convicted on similar charges and sentenced to life imprisonment for her role in Naroda Patiya massacre, a place close to Naroda Gam. She was held as the “kingpin” of the riots.

Maya Kodnani is accused of leading a mob of thousands of people and inciting them for violence in Naroda Gaam in which 11 Muslims were killed. She is among the 82 accused who are facing trial.

Kodnani is accused of leading mob of thousands and inciting them for violence

"I was at the hospital for quite some time. I remember seeing Jaideep Patel and other leaders. I tried to pacify the crowd but they surrounded me, Police had to take me and Mayaben (Maya Kodnani) away from the spot in one of their jeeps. This was around 11 – 11:15 am," says Amit Shah.

CNN News18 quoted Amit Shah as saying, "I was not allowed entry into the post-mortem room. I met with family members of the Godhra victims whose post mortem and identification was completed. There were several Karyakartas with me, people were angry and were raising slogans when I was coming out of the hospital," says Amit Shah.

Amit Shah in court says Maya Kodnani and him were escorted away by police during the riots

While the names of many BJP leaders surfaced during the investigation into the 2002 riots, it was only Kodnani who was tried and sentenced by the SIT court for her role in the riots.

Amit Shah's statement on Maya Kodnani will not have any imapct on the outcome of the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections as the 2002 riots is a distant memory for the voters.

Shah, who arrived at the Sessions Court at around 11 am, has already concluded his statement and the proceedings are now over.

"Maya Kodnani did not go to Naroda Gam between being at the assembly session and Sola hospital. We did speak about appearing as a witness in the Naroda Patiya case but the SIT has not bothered to ask me whether I was with her on February 28, 2002, or not" CNN News18 quoted Amit Shah as saying.

"I was not allowed entry into the post-mortem room. I met with family members of the Godhra victims whose post mortem and identification was completed. There were several Karyakartas with me, people were angry and were raising slogans when I was coming out of the hospital," says CNN News18 quoted Amit Shah as saying.

Amit Shah says he was not allowed to enter post-mortem room

Deposing before the court, Amit Shah backs former minister Mayaben Kodnani in the case, saying that Shah was in the hospital during the riots in the Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad.

While all the witnesses have been examined in the Naroda Patiya case, the procedures will go on. The examining of defence witnesses is over and the statements will be compared with the chargesheet that was filed in the case. However, Shah's deposition comes as a major relief for Kodnani as she was being felt left off after she was convicted in the case.

In an election year, where the BJP is already facing an uphill task to retain the prime minister’s home state, this step is one such effort to send out a signal to its core votebank — the majority.

Why Amit Shah chose to be a witness and defend Kodnani is probably to refute allegations that the BJP had left all the riot accused to fend for themselves their party leaders. Shah, in his statement, stood by Kodnani and backed her alibi by saying that they were not allowed in the postmortem room of the hospital and taken away by the police.

The whole deposition lasted for less than an hour

While the names of many BJP leaders surfaced during the investigation into the 2002 riots, it was only Kodnani who was tried and sentenced by the SIT court for her role in the riots.

Amit Shah's statement on Maya Kodnani will not have any imapct on the outcome of the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections as the 2002 riots is a distant memory for the voters.

Shah, who arrived at the Sessions Court at around 11 am, has already concluded his statement and the proceedings are now over.

"Maya Kodnani did not go to Naroda Gam between being at the assembly session and Sola hospital. We did speak about appearing as a witness in the Naroda Patiya case but the SIT has not bothered to ask me whether I was with her on February 28, 2002, or not" CNN News18 quoted Amit Shah as saying.

"I was not allowed entry into the post-mortem room. I met with family members of the Godhra victims whose post mortem and identification was completed. There were several Karyakartas with me, people were angry and were raising slogans when I was coming out of the hospital," says CNN News18 quoted Amit Shah as saying.

Amit Shah says he was not allowed to enter post-mortem room

Deposing before the court, Amit Shah backs former minister Mayaben Kodnani in the case, saying that Shah was in the hospital during the riots in the Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad.

While all the witnesses have been examined in the Naroda Patiya case, the procedures will go on. The examining of defence witnesses is over and the statements will be compared with the chargesheet that was filed in the case. However, Shah's deposition comes as a major relief for Kodnani as she was being felt left off after she was convicted in the case.

In an election year, where the BJP is already facing an uphill task to retain the prime minister’s home state, this step is one such effort to send out a signal to its core votebank — the majority.

Why Amit Shah chose to be a witness and defend Kodnani is probably to refute allegations that the BJP had left all the riot accused to fend for themselves their party leaders. Shah, in his statement, stood by Kodnani and backed her alibi by saying that they were not allowed in the postmortem room of the hospital and taken away by the police.

Gujarat: Amit Shah leaves after appearing before a sessions court in Ahmedabad as Maya Kodnani's witness in 2002 Naroda Gam riots case. pic.twitter.com/CGDNhH7Szo

The whole deposition lasted for less than an hour

BJP president Amit Shah has arrived at the Ahmedabad Sessions Court as a defence witness for former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, one of the prime accused in the Naroda Patiya case, media reports said on Monday. According to DNA, Shah is is expected Ahmedabad City Civil and Session Court at the old HC campus at 11 am to present himself as a witness.

On a petition filed by Kodnani, who is the prime accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case, a special SIT court on 12 September summoned the BJP chief to appear before it on Monday.

The court had said it will not re-issue the summons in case Shah fails to present himself.

By summoning Shah and others, including her nursing home and Sola civil hospital staff, Kodnani will attempt to prove she was present at spots such as the Gujarat Assembly, civil hospital, her home, and other places, but not Naroda Gam during the time of riots on 28 February, 2002, Hindustan Times reported.

Kodnani's advocate Amit Patel submitted before the court the residential address of Shah in Thaltej area of Ahmedabad city, after which the court issued the summons to him on the same address.

Earlier, Kodnani had failed to give the address to which the summons to Shah were to be issued. Her advocate had twice sought time for four days each to her to find out and submit the address on which the summons could be issued to Shah.

The court had in April allowed Kodnani's plea to have the summons issued to Shah and some others as witnesses in her defence.

At the subsequent hearings, the court had asked Kodnani to tell it whether Shah will depose as her witness.

Kodnani, in her application to prove her innocence, said that on the day of incident she had visited Sola civil hospital after attending the state Legislative Assembly. She claimed in the application that Shah, who was an MLA at that time, was also present at the Sola civil hospital, where bodies of 'karsevaks' killed in the Sabarmati train burning incident were brought from Godhra.

Kodnani said that Shah's testimony will help prove her alibi.

Two weeks back, the Supreme Court had asked the SIT court to conclude the trial within four months.

A bench headed by then Chief Justice JS Khehar was informed that the trial was in progress and evidence of the defence witnesses was being recorded by a special court. The top court had asked the lower court to complete the recording of evidence of the remaining defence witnesses in two months.

The massacre in Naroda Gam in Ahmedabad is one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases which were investigated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). Eleven persons belonging to the minority community were killed in Naroda Gam in the 2002 riots, during a bandh called to protest the Godhra train burning incident.

A total of 82 persons are facing trial in the case.

Kodnani, who was then a minister in the Narendra Modi-led state government, has already been convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the case of riot at Naroda Patiya where 97 people were massacred.