All 69 accused, including former Bharatiya Janta Party minister Maya Kodnani, in the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre in Gujarat were acquitted by a special court in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

The accused included Maya Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, and 84 others. 18 of the accused died during the intervening period. The verdict was pronounced by special judge Shubhada Baxi at 5:30 pm.

The trial started in 2010 and continued for 13 years with six different judges. Reports said the prosecution had called as many as 187 witnesses while the defence called 57.

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Earlier, a trial court had convicted both Bajrangi and Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya case and had sentenced them to life imprisonment. Later, the Gujarat High Court overturned Kodnani’s conviction and upheld Bajrangi’s conviction in 2018.

In 2017, Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah appeared as a defence witness for Kodnani the court. She had claimed that she was present at the Gujarat Assembly and Sola Civil Hospital during the time of the massacre.

The Naroda Gam massacre was among the major riots that took place in Gujarat. On February 28, eleven Muslims were burnt to death after mobs set their houses on fire in Muslim Mohalla in Kumbhar Vas in the Naroda Gam area of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

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Five Indian Army jawans were reportedly killed after their vehicle caught fire on the Poonch-Jammu highway in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.

According to reports, an army vehicle caught fire in Bhatta Durian Forest in BG Sector of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir resulting in the deaths of four Army personnel.

An Army spokesman said that vehicle caught fire at around 3:pm in the afternoon while it was on its way to Sangiot from Bhimber Gali in Poonch district.

He said that five Army personnel lost their lives in the mishap.

Visuals of the tragic mishap have surfaced on social media platforms showing the army vehicle completely razed by the blaze while the bodies of the deceased army men are scattered around on the ground.

Another video shows the accident site being surrounded by Army personnel as they carry out rescue ops.

Reports quoting Army sources said that a team of senior Army officials is enroute to assess the situation and army authorities are investigating the exact cause of fire and determining whether this was an accident or a case of deliberate sabotage.

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Some media reports suggest that the fire might have been caused due to a lightning strike as weather in the area was said to be volatile when the incident happened.

They said that the lighting strike may have set off explosives on the army truck resulting in an explosion that set the vehicle on fire and killed army personnel on board.

A team of Jammu and Kashmir Police and Army officials has reached the accident site, reports said.

A report quoting a senior police official said that the possibility of foul play in the tragic incident cannot be ruled out at this moment. However, the exact cause of the inferno can only be determined after proper investigation and forensic analysis, he said.

The reports said the Army has ordered a Court of enquiry to probe the mishap.

The Indian Army has taken custody of the bodies of the four deceased soldiers, they said.

More details are awaited.

Delhi HC tells Google to take down false content on Aaradhya Bachchan

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The Delhi High Court on Thursday told Google to remove from its platform, all content spreading false information about the health and wellbeing of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s 11-year-old daughter Aaradhya Bachchan as well as restraining several YouTube channels from publishing the said misleading content.

Delhi HC judge Justice C Hari Shankar in his ruling admonished the content creators for the false information on Aaradhya, saying that to spread misleading information about a child,  reflects “morbid perversity” and “complete apathy in the interests of the child.”

The top court, while hearing a lawsuit by the minor girl and her father Abhishek Bachchan, ordered Google to remove all videos from its platform that spread the false information claiming that Aaradhya Bachchan was “critically ill” and “no more”.

Justice Shankar noted that spreading false or misleading information about a child’s health was “completely intolerable” according to the law as every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect.

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In its interim order, the court asked Google to inform the plaintiff about the details of the YouTube uploaders in question. It also told Google to delete similar videos in the future, whenever they are brought to its notice.

The top court in its judgement ruled that the YouTube channels, who disseminated the false content, are “completely restrained from publishing, sharing and disseminating any content on any public platform across the net relating the state of health or physical condition of the plaintiff.”

Further, it told Google to immediately “delist and deactivate all videos mentioned in the plea” and asked the tech giant to file a response which mentions in detail, Google’s policy on dealing with such objectionable content on YouTube platform in view of intermediary rules, adding that Google was duty bound to follow the legal framework for intermediaries.

The Delhi High Court also issued directions to the Centre to block access to the misleading content mentioned in the plea.

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