Post-Godhra Riots: 'Prominent Hindus Unnecessarily Faced Trial Due To Uproar Of Pseudo-Secular Media, Organisation': Court Acquits 35 Accused

A Sessions Court in Gujarat's Halol (Panchmahal District) on Monday acquitted all 35 surviving accused in four cases in connection with the 2022 post-Godhra riot cases.

In these cases, 52 persons were initially charge-sheeted under various sections of the IPC and Bombay Police Act, out of these, 17 died during the pendency of the trial which went on for 20 long years.

In its 36-page order, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Harsh Balkrishna Trivedi noted that the in the case, the Police implicated prominent Hindu persons of the concerned area including Doctors, Professors, Teachers, Businessmen, Panchayat officials and due to the uproar of pseudo-secular media and organizations, the accused persons had to unnecessarily face prolonged trial.

In this regard, referring to the prominent Gujarati Author, Kanhaiyalal Munshi, the Court said:

"[Munshi Ji] once said that if every time there is an inter-community conflict, the majority is blamed regardless of the merits of the question, the springs of traditional tolerance will dry up. In the case on hand, the police unnecessarily implicated the accused in the alleged commission of crime."

Going further, the Court also observed that the Prosecutors who are afraid of specific community lead NGOs rarely have recourse. The said remark was made as the Court found that in the present case, the Prosecutor unnecessarily prolonged the case by calling as many as witnesses. 

The Court further found the continued and repeated written allegations filed by persons belonging to the Muslim community to be the reason behind the prolonged probe in the case. The Court said that alleged victims of riots had been inconsistent in their statements recorded before various authorities.

The Court also added that the Muslim witnesses who were alleged sufferers of riots gave widely divergent versions of the riots and thus, the prosecution failed to prove the factum of movement of the mob as mentioned in F.I.R. and in the charge sheet.

"Several persons of the Muslim community who were said to be victims of communal violence in Delol, Derol, Kalol etc. had made oral and written representations of their grievance, before different higher authority, these are at Ex.840 and Ex.840-A etc. I have gone through their written allegations and their statements in police diary. Upon perusing those allegations keeping them next to next. I found that every time they introduced a new story."

Regarding the nature of the probe in communal riots cases, the Court stressed as to how there is a possibility of innocent persons of both the community being falsely implicated. It noted that in such cases, the Judge has to ascertain in such cases as to which of the two versions is correct and the court can not shirk this duty on the ground that the police did not ascertain which of the stories was true.

"In case of communal riots, a large number of persons is generally involved and the evidence is often entirely of a partisan character. There is moreover, great danger of innocent persons being implicated along with the guilty, owing to the tendency of the parties in such cases to try to implicate falsely as many of their enemies as they can. Therefore the possibility of innocent persons being falsely implicated should always be borne in mind by the Judge...In case on hand members of both communities suffered damages to properties and the police personnel sustained injuries by stone pelting from Muslim mob. In spite of that the prosecution is not able to call section 149 IPC in aid, because there is no certainty that there was atlease five persons in mob sharing the common object."

The Court also concluded that the prosecution failed to prove recovery and seizure of weapons from the accused person through independent witnesses and that there was no direct evidence which could link any five accused, out of the 35 accused persons with the alleged offence of riots which allegedly led to the killing of Ruhul Padva, Harun Abdul Sattar Tasiya and Yusuf Ibrahim Sheikh.

The Court further found the police witnesses to be unreliable as it noted "none of them has identified miscreants, even during the investigation and during the trial".

In this regard, the Court added that "in our country, the standard of truth amongst the population is very low and in this case, the testimonies of almost all witnesses were revealed to be wholly unreliable".