‘Hindus Implicated Due to Pseudo-Secular Media’: Court on 2002 Gujarat Riots

A Gujarat Court slammed “pseudo-secular media and politicians” while acquitting 35 people in post-Godhra riots.

A Gujarat court slammed “pseudo-secular media and politicians” while acquitting 35 people accused in post-Godhra riots cases on 12 June.

Additional Sessions Judge Harsh Trivedi, judge at a court in Gujarat’s Halol, said,

"Police implicated prominent Hindu persons of the area due to uproar of pseudo-secular media and organization, the accused persons unnecessarily faced prolonged trial."

Here’s all you need to know.

What was the case? The acquitted persons had been accused of murder, unlawful assembly, and rioting in four different cases of violence on 28 February 2002, in the post Godhra riots, in which three people from the minority community had been killed near Kalol bus stand, Delol village, and Derol station area. The accused were out on bail. 

What did the court say? Out of 52 accused, 17 passed away since the trials first began in 2002. Acquitting the others, the judge said:

• There was a lack of evidence against the accused.

• The recovery and seizure of weapons against the accused could not be proved.

• The witnesses turned hostile, and,

• The victims were inconsistent in their statements.

Judge Trivedi said,

“In case on hand members of both communities suffered damages to properties and the police personnel sustained injuries by stone pelting from Muslim mob.”

He went on to add that the investigation in these cases went on for too long “due to continued and repeated written allegations by person of Muslim community,” and that “pseudo-secular media and politicians rubbed salt into the wound of anguished (...) peace-loving Gujarati people.”

He added that the investigation was so prolonged that the “first and the last IO died before they can be called as witnesses.”

The court also asserted that the Godhra riots were spontaneous and not planned as “pseudo-secular persons” had been claiming. 

‘Majority is Blamed Regardless of Merits’: The court also said, 

“Kanhaiyalal Munshi once said ‘If every time there is inter-communal conflict, the majority is blamed regardless of merits of the question.”