The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team inquiring into the 2002 Naroda Gam massacre told a special court on Wednesday that Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah’s deposition in the case should be discarded, The Indian Express reported. The investigation team said that Shah’s statement was intended only to “support” former Gujarat minister and key accused Maya Kodnani.

Kodnani has been accused of inciting and leading a mob to carry out violent attacks in Naroda Gam in Naroda municipality, leading to the death of 11 Muslims.

“Amit Shah recorded the statement 15 years after the incident, which is not relevant now,” Special Public Prosecutor Gaurang Vyas said. “It was done only to support Maya Kodnani as both were MLAs back then.”

In September, Shah, who appeared as a witness for Kodnani, said she was not in Naroda Gam on February 28, 2002, the day of the massacre. She was present in the Gujarat Assembly at 8.30 am and at a hospital in Ahmedabad between 9.30 am and 9.45 am, he said.

“Amit Shah’s presence at Sola Civil hospital is also doubtful as despite being an MLA, nobody, even the accused like Babu Bajrangi, Jaideep Patel ever mentioned his presence,” Vyas said. Bodies of karsevaks who died in Godhra had been brought to the hospital.

Vyas said that Shah’s presence at the hospital was not in the case records until two of Kodnani’s defence witnesses, Natubhai Vaghela and Bharat Kantibhai Patel deposed last year. The Special Investigation Team will examine the deposition of two more of Kodnani’s defence witnesses.

Meanwhile, lawyer Shamshad Pathan sought permission from the court to argue on behalf of the victims. The court asked him to file an application, which will be heard on Friday, The Indian Express reported.

Kodnani was also accused of instigating mobs to carry out massacres in Naroda Patiya. A trial court had convicted her in the case in 2012 and sentenced her to 28 years in prison. The trial court had described Kodnani as the “kingpin” of the single largest mass killing – of 97 Muslim men, women and children – during the Gujarat carnage. However, in April, the Gujarat High Court overturned Kodnani’s conviction and acquitted her, ruling that none of the witnesses against her were reliable.