Kodnani with 17 others acquitted
Ahmedabad, April 20: The Gujarat High Court on Friday acquitted former BJP minister Maya Kodnani but upheld the conviction of former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case in which 97 people were killed by a mob.
The High Court upheld conviction of 13 people including Bajrangi, and convicted another three for the first time, while acquitting 18 of the 32 people convicted by the trial court in 2012.
In 2002, Kodnani was a BJP MLA and the trial court had said she was the “kingpin” of the Naroda Patiya killings, one of the worst incidents of violence during the Gujarat riots, and sentenced her to 28 years in jail.
Kodnani went on to become a minister in then Narendra Modi government in Gujarat in 2007, before resigning when she was arrested in the case in March 2009.
Ahmedabad, April 20: The Gujarat High Court on Friday acquitted former BJP minister Maya Kodnani but upheld the conviction of former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case in which 97 people were killed by a mob.
Acquitting her, the HC said the statements made by witnesses regarding her role were contradictory.
No prosecution witness mentioned that she talked to them at the relevant time, the High Court noted.
The High Court said it finds it “hazardous” to rely on contradictory statements of witnesses, and therefore, no testimony of witnesses regarding Kodnani was accepted. The trial court had convicted her for a criminal conspiracy under section 120B of the IPC, but the evidence didn’t establish the charge, the High Court said.
Kodnani was also given the benefit of doubt as she was made an accused for the first time in 2008 by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), while her name did not figure in the original FIR, the high court said.
The division bench of Justices Harsha Devani and A.S. Supahia on Friday convicted 16 people including Bajrangi, and acquitted 18 others, including Kodnani.