On April 16, the court of principal sessions Judge SK Baxi fixed April 20 as the date for the verdict in the case and also directed the accused to remain present in the court. Notably, all the accused in the case were on bail.
The Naroda Gam case was among the nine major riots that broke out in Gujarat in 2002 after the burning of the Sabarmati Express. The Naroda Patiya case was the other attack wherein 97 Muslims were killed by a mob. In 2012, Kodnani and Bajrangi were convicted in the Naroda Patiya case and Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years in jail, but she was acquitted by the Gujarat High Court in 2018.
In the trial that started in 2010 and went on for nearly 13 years, the prosecution and defence examined 187 and 57 witnesses, respectively, with six judges successively presiding over the case, said special prosecutor Suresh Shah.