The Gujarat High Court today commenced hearing on the appeals filed by 31 convicts of the Naroda Patiya riot case of 2002, who have challenged their conviction by a special trial court in August 2013.
A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Ravi Tripathi and Justice R D Kothari, heard the contentions of one of the convicts and former state minister Maya Kodnani.
Kodnani's counsel N D Nanavati argued the trial court had erred in the judgement by believing in the testimonies of 11 witnesses whose statements he said are replete with contradictions.
There is no substantial evidence against Kodnani, which can lead to her conviction, said Nanavati.
A special trial court had on August 30, 2012 awarded life imprisonment to Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 others for killings and hatching a criminal conspiracy.
There are around 100 appeals in the case, including those of the convicts and of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), besides those of the survivors who have sought enhancement of punishment of the convicts.
The hearing is likely to continue on Monday.
As many as 84 survivors of Naroda patiya riot case had yesterday written a letter to the acting chief justice of the High Court to change the division bench headed by justice Ravi Tripathi.
The HC had last month decided to expedite the hearing of appeals in the case.
97 people belonging to the minority community were killed in the massacre that took place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.
