The court of additional sessions judge of Halol in Panchmahal district, Leelabhai Chudasama, heard the case on Friday.
It was reported that of the total 39 accused, 23 had died while the case was pending and the trial against them was abated.
The prosecution had provided the court with 190 witnesses and 334 documentaries as evidence in support of its argument. However, the court said there were contradictions in the witnesses' accounts.
According to reports, an FIR was registered against the accused at Kalol Police Station on March 2, 2002, a day after a mob went on a rampage in the communal riots that broke out in Gujarat on March 1, 2002.
The FIR had been registered after the mob of 2,000 people clashed with sharp weapons and inflammable objects in the Kalol district of Gandhinagar. They had damaged shops and set them on fire.
During the violence, a man who had been injured in police firing and was being rushed to the hospital was burnt alive. The mob had attacked and killed another man coming out of a mosque and burnt his body inside the holy building.
In another incident, 38 people fleeing Delol village and traveling to Kalol were attacked and 11 of them were burnt alive. According to the FIR, a woman was gang raped when she and others were trying to escape.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by riots that left more than 1,000 people dead — most of them Muslims.
A BBC documentary titled India: The Modi Question accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “directly responsible for the 2002 massacre of Muslims in the Indian state of Gujarat”.
Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by riots that left more than 1,000 people dead — most of them Muslims.
The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59. It resulted in the displacement of hundreds of Muslims and the destruction of hundreds of mosques, stated the documentary.
Accused of failing to stop the rioting, Modi denied the accusations and was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry by India’s top court. Another petition questioning his exoneration was dismissed last year.The BBC report furthered that “so much damage could not have been inflicted without the climate of impunity created by the state government”.
“There was widespread and systematic rape of Muslim women with the intent to purge Muslims from Hindu areas” stated the report, adding that the “systematic campaign of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing”.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak defended Modi during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons.
Pakistani-origin Imran Hussain, member of Parliament for Bradford East, asked the British premier if he agreed with claims in the BBC documentary that some UK Foreign Office diplomats believed that "Modi was directly responsible” for the Gujarat massacre.
Sunak said that the UK government’s position has been “clear and longstanding, and hasn’t changed”, adding that the UK doesn’t tolerate persecution where it appears anywhere.
“I’m not sure I agree at all with the characterization that the honourable has put forward,” Sunak added.
