A Special court in Gujarat’s capital Ahmedabad on Thursday, 20 April 2023 acquitted 68 people including a former minister in the government of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Maya Kodnani, ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Jaydeep Patel V S Gohil, then police inspector at the Naroda police station in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre case (one among the nine cases of Gujarat riots, 2002) where 11 members of the Muslim community were killed with family members of those acquitted welcoming the verdict with slogans of Jai Shri Ram (Hail Lord Ram) and Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Victory to Mother India).
The killings occurred in Naroda Gam district of Ahmedabad city on February 28, 2002. The trials were committed to special courts, and monitored by the Supreme Court.
Around 187 and 57 witnesses of the prosecution and defence were examined, respectively for 13 years and 21 years since the incident.
In 2017, Home minister Amit Shah (then the national president of the BJP) appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani in 2017.
Kodnani was also convicted and sentenced to 28 years in jail in the Naroda Patiya riot case where 97 people were massacred.
She was later freed by the Gujarat High Court.