Questioning state impunity

Shamshad Pathan,one of the Gujarat lawyers leading the fight for justice for the 2002 Gujarat riot victims,fights the small battles: ensuring that riot victims file FIRs and sign affidavits....

The legal battle for justice for the 2002 Gujarat riot victims has many warriors. In the Supreme Court,for example,a determined battle by the nations top lawyers resulted in a retrial in the Best Bakery case,cases transferred outside Gujarat,the setting up of a Special Investigation Team,and repeated criticisms of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

But there are also local warriors 8211; Gujarat lawyers closely coordinated with their Delhi and Mumbai counterparts. They provided,and continue to provide grassroots inputs 8212; getting victims to file FIRs and affidavits,helping them depose before the Nanavati Commission,and ensuring that the victims are not lost in file after file of legalese.

Shamshad Pathan is one of these young lawyers. I had graduated in 2002. And after the riots,someone told me that the educated people of our community were useless since the riots victims were facing problems in such simple matters as filing an affidavit in the court. And so,I decided to go ahead with my career in law. And immediately,I enrolled myself for a degree in law, says Pathan.

Pathan is active in the cases of Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam. And he has been giving legal assistance to the victims like helping them access the courts and the Nanavati Commission. After the Best Bakery case,the credibility of the Gujarat judiciary is at stake. And it all depends now on whether fair trials take place in these cases and if justice is delivered.

Dr Mukul Sinha is another Gujarat-based lawyer who is fighting the legal battle on behalf of the riot victims at the trial courts and at the Nanavati Inquiry Commission. Sinha says, Help can come from outside but to fight the battle we need people from the soil of the state. Personally,I felt very satisfied the first affidavit filed with the Nanavati Commission was by a Hindu lawyer from our team,Amrish Patel,in which he challenged the governments theory of calling the Godhra Train Burning incident part of a conspiracy.

Calling the Gujarat riots cases as the most important in the country Sinha says,It is for the first time,perhaps in history,that an individuals role in the riots could be identified,that too in connivance with the state machinery