Witnesses call trial judge biased

They have now moved a petition before the Principal Sessions Judge of Ahmedabad Sessions Court to transfer the trial from his court.

Principal Sessions Judge G B Shah has admitted the petition and issued notice to the Special Public Prosecutor in the case,R K Shah. Further hearing has been kept for January 27.

The seven eyewitnesses have been identified as Imtiaz Pathan,Rupa Modi,Saeedkhan Pathan,Mohammed Rafique Abubakar Pathan,Firoz

Mohammed Pathan,Sayara Sandhi and Salim Sandhi.

The seven have prayed before the Principal Judge to transfer the trial proceedings of the case to some other court of the Additional Sessions Judge.

They have also prayed to stay the trial proceedings in the court of Joshi till the final outcome of their petition is arrived.

They have cited various instances from the trial proceedings in their allegations against Joshi. They have said that Joshi has pre-judged the authenticity of their depositions and so they have no hope of getting any justice from his court.

The witnesses have highlighted a number of statements that Joshi had uttered during the course of the trial proceedings whereby he questioned authenticity of the witnesses’ depositions.

The witnesses have also said that Joshi has been treating the witnesses worse than even the accused. In particular,the witnesses have highlighted the instance when Joshi had not allowed a prayer to let the witnesses come out of the witness box towards the enclosure of the accused for identification during their depositions.

The witnesses have also questioned Joshi’s decision of releasing police constable Rajesh Jinger who has been recently arraigned as accused on bail. Jinger has not spent a single day in custody.

Advocate S M Vora who moved the petition on behalf of the witnesses said,“The Principal Judge has admitted the petition and issued notice to the Special Public Prosecutor. Further hearing has been kept for January 27.”

Charges filed against police constable
The special trial court for the Gulberg Society Massacre case,on Monday,framed charges against police Constable Rajesh Jinger for his alleged role in the case. Jinger was recently made an accused in the case on the basis of an application by the victims and the eyewitnesses.

Among other charges,Jinger has accused of murder,rioting and criminal conspiracy.

Earlier,some victims and witnesses in the case had moved an application before the trial court to arraign eight more as accused in the case. Jinger was one of them.

The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) had,however,opposed the application.

In the case of Jinger,the SIT had taken the defence of alibi. The court,however,allowed the application only in the case of Jinger and ordered to arraign him as accused. He was later released on bail.