Mumbai : Bail has been granted to the four convicts of 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case, the four convicts are Umeshbhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Harshad and Prakashbhai Rathod.
On Tuesday, an SC bench chaired by Justice AM Khanwilkar granted bail to four of the main culprits, that the decision of the High Court of the sentence was “the issue of debate” and it would take a lot of time for their bail because they were released on bail.
While deciding the bail application, the Supreme Court also said that Gujarat HC had relied mainly on the identity of these culprits by police officers, but in some cases, no identity parade had been made and the appeals had a group Had raised doubts on their identity in 15,000 people.
Thebench said, “We find that the view of the Gujarat High Court is a matter of debate.” It was also mentioned that Bharwad was undergoing treatment for HIV and he was on bail during the hearing of the case.
The bench while granting bail to Rajkumar said, “Prima facie, we find this approach to be doubtful, especially when the witnesses relied upon by the prosecution are police officials and no identification parade of this applicant was conducted during the investigation by the Police.”
Thecourt further said that Harshad alias Mungdah district was sentenced to 10 years in jail. The bench directed, “Accordingly, an applicant is ordered to be released on bail for the satisfaction of the trial court.” It released another guilty Prakashbhai Sureshbhai Rathore on interim bail between January 28 and February 15 to join his daughter’s marriage.
The Naroda Patiya massacre took place on 28 February 2002 at Naroda Ahmedabad, India, during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Around 97 Muslims were killed by a mob. The riot lasted over 10 hours, during which the mob looted, stabbed, sexually assaulted, gang-raped and burnt people individually and in groups.
Afterthe conflict, a curfew was imposed in the state and army troops were called in to contain further violence.
