Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday evening arrived in Kerala’s Kochi for a two-day visit. The Prime Minister kick-started his visit with a roadshow in the city.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to take part in various programmes and inaugurate different projects across the state.

At around 5 pm, the Prime Minister at INS Garuda naval air station in Kochi from where he held a 2-km roadshow to the venue of a youth programme, which he attended. In the visuals coming in, PM Modi can be seen in a complete white traditional Kerala attire. He can be seen walking a few distance, greeting people on the either side of the road while petals were being showered on him.

PM Modi will first be taking part in Yuvam 2023, a programme dedicated towards the youth. Later tomorrow, he will also flag off a Vande Bharat Express train, which is expected to cover the length of the state. The route of the train is not fully known with some reports claiming it will start from Thiruvananthapuram and end at Kannur with 5 stops in between.

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The highlight of the Prime Minister’s visit will be the inauguration of India’s first water metro service that will connect Kochi to 10 islands around it.

PM Modi is also likely to meet eight senior priests drawn from the Christian community’s various churches at the Taj Malabar Hotel, the hotel in which the PM will be staying.

The entire city is under a tight security net with more than 2000 police force deployed around Kochi to ensure the safety of the Prime Minister.

The BJP has failed to woo voters in Kerala and with the past few months seeing the focus of the Centre with announcement of different infrastructure projects and impressing the Christian and Muslim communities of the state, it seems the saffron party is keen to win adequate number of votes and seats in the general elections next year.

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The Patna High Court on Monday stayed the trial of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case over his alleged 2019 “Modi surname” remarks. The former Wayanad MP had filed a petition in the high court against the order by a trial court to appear in connection with the defamation case filed by former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

In his plea Rahul Gandhi had contended that he cannot be put on trial for the same offence since he has already been convicted and sentence in a similar case by a court in Gujarat’s Surat.

Hearing the former Congress chief’s plea, Justice Sandeep Kumar stayed trial proceedings against Gandhi till May 15.  S D Sanjay, the counsel for BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said they will submit their reply to Gandhi’s petition on the same date.

Modi had filed a defamation suit against the Gandhi scion after the Congress leader alleged made the infamous “Modi surname” remarks at a poll rally in Karnataka during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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Recently, an MP/MLA court in Patna had summoned Gandhi on April 25 in connection with Modi’s defamation suit.

On March 23, a magistrate court in Surat convicted the Congress leader in the criminal defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail. The conviction led to his disqualification from the Lok Sabha and losing his MP status.

The disqualification which will prevent 52-year-old Gandhi, a four-time MP, from contesting elections for eight years unless a higher court stays the conviction, has kicked up a political storm with the Congress staging a countrywide satyagraha last month to protest the decision.

On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi vacated the official Tughlaq Lane bungalow which was allotted to him as MP.

Last week, a sessions court in Gujarat’s Surat city dismissed Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay to his conviction in the “Modi surname” remark criminal defamation case.

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A Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court will challenge the recent acquittal of all 67 accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case in the Gujarat High Court, reports said.

According to reports quoting sources in the SIT, the team will file a plea in Gujarat High Court against the lower court’s order in the Naroda Gam case, adding that the final call will be taken after studying the SIT court’s judgement which is still awaited.

On April 20, a special court of S K Baxi in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad, special judge for Special Investigation Team cases, cleared all 67 accused—including former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, and former VHP leader Jaydeep Patel —in the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam area in which eleven Muslims were killed by rioters.

The Naroda Gam massacre was one of the nine major 2002 communal riots cases investigated by the SC-appointed SIT and heard by special courts.

The SIT, which took over the probe from the Gujarat Police in 2008, arrested more than 30 accused in the case.

A total of 86 accused were named in the FIR pertaining to the Naroda Gam massacre. While 18 accused died during the period of the trial, one was discharged by the court earlier under section 169 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) citing insufficient evidence against him.

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The Naroda Gam massacre

On February 28, 2002, riots erupted in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam area during a shutdown called to protest the burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express by a mob near Godhra station a day earlier in which 58 passengers, mostly karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, were charred to death.

As per official numbers, as many as 11 Muslims were killed by rioters in Naroda Gam following which the 86 accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), and 153 (provocation for riots), among others.

Current Union Home Minister and then BJP chief, Amit Shah, had appeared in the trial court as a defence witness for Maya Kodnani.

The former Gujarat minister had requested the court to summon Shah to in a bid to prove her alibi that she was present in the Gujarat Assembly and later at Ahmedabad’s Sola Civil Hospital, and not at Naroda Gam, where the massacre took place.

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