02, May 2012

The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) welcomes the decision of
the Gujarat High Court to admit specifically the appeal filed by
Victim Witnesses of the Sardarpura massacre in addition to the
appeals filed by the state and the Special Investigation Team (SIT)
last week. In fact the appeals filed by victim witnesses and
supported by the CJP were filed first and only after these came up
for hearing did the state of Gujarat and the SIT file their separate
appeals.

The CJP had argued through our counsel Advocate Mihir Desai that
the rights of witnesses under Section 24(8)(2) of the Code of
Criminal procedure is explicit recognizing their independent place
in a criminal trial. Not only that given the specific history of
this litigation where it was on the plea of CJP and victim witnesses
that the investigation was transferred from the Gujarat police to
the SIT, the rights of the victim witnesses could not be taken away.

In the appeal filed by us in February 2012 apart from making a
case out against some of the accused, a strong argument has been
laid out against the dismissal of charges under Section 120-B and
Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. As the annexure below
suggests, the Conspiracy angle was made out in the evidence laid out
before the Court. Attached is a detailed note on the Special Status
of Victim and Legal Rights Groups given through this litigation.

Teesta Setalvad, Secretary

Other Trustees:

I.M. Kadri                                  Arvind Krishnaswamy
Javed Akhtar

Cyrus Guzder                            Alyque Padamsee
Anil Dharker

Nandan Maluste                        Javed Anand
Cedric Prakash


Rahul
Bose
Ghulam Pesh Imam