On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers, including a large number of Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya after a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid,[82][83] was burned near Godhra; about 60 people were killed.[a] In the wake of rumours that the fire was set by Muslim arsonists, anti-Muslim violencespread through Gujarat.[86] Estimates of that death toll ranged from 900 to over 2,000, with several thousand injured.[87][88] The Modi government imposed a curfew in major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders and called for the army to prevent the violence from escalating,[89][90] but human rights organisations, opposition parties and some media accused the Gujarat government of taking insufficient action against the riots (to the point of condoning them).[89][90][91] Modi's decision to move the bodies of the Kar Sevak train victims from Godhra to Ahmedabad was criticised for inflaming the violence.[92][93]
In March 2008, the Supreme Court asked the state government to re-investigate nine cases from the 2002 riots (including the Gulbarg Society massacre), establishing a Special Investigation Team (SIT).[91][94][95] In response to a petition from Zakia Jafri (widow of Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre), in April 2009 the court asked the SIT to investigate her allegation that Modi and another minister were complicit in the killings.[94][96] The SIT questioned Modi in March 2010; in May, it presented to the court a report finding no evidence to substantiate the allegations.[94][97] In July 2011, amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran submitted his final report to the court: contrary to the SIT position, Modi could be prosecuted based on the available evidence. The team criticised Ramachandran's report for relying on testimony from Sanjiv Bhatt, who they said fabricated the documents used as evidence.[98][99] The Supreme Court gave the matter to the magistrate court, with the SIT examining Ramachandran's report. The team submitted its final report in March 2012 seeking closure of the case, with Zakia Jaffri filing a protest petition in response. In December 2013 the magistrate court rejected the protest petition, accepting the SIT's finding that there was no evidence against the chief minister.[100]
Modi's involvement in the 2002 events has continued to be debated. Several scholars have described them as a pogrom, while others have called them state terrorism.[101][102][103] Summarising academic views on the subject, Martha Nussbaum said: "There is by now a broad consensus that the Gujarat violence was a form of ethnic cleansing, that in many ways it was premeditated, and that it was carried out with the complicity of the state government and officers of the law."[104] Distinguished Indian lawyerRam Jethmalani applauded Modi's efforts during 2002 riots.[105] In 2012 Maya Kodnani, a minister in Modi's government from 2007 to 2009, was convicted of participation in theNaroda Patiya massacre during the 2002 riots.[106][107] Kodnani was the first woman and the first MLA to be convicted in a Godhra-riots case.[108] Although Modi's government had announced that it would seek the death penalty for Kodnani on appeal, in 2013 it retreated from that stance.[109][110][111]
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