Gujarat High Court to hear Maya Kodnani’s appeal in 2002 Naroda Patiya case
Maya Kodnani and 29 others appealed challenging their conviction in the riots case by a special trial court.
The Gujarat High Court will conduct the final hearing on the appeal of former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani and others against life terms given to them in the 2002 post-Godhra riot case of Naroda Patiya.
A Gujarat High Court division bench headed by Justice Ravi Tripathi would conduct the final hearing of the appeal by Maya Kodnani and 29 others, challenging their conviction by a special trial court.
The High Court is also likely to conduct a hearing on other convicts’ appeals, said an official of the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which had probed the Naroda Patiya case.
Kodnani, who had served as a minister for Women and Child Development in the cabinet of former Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was released on bail by the Gujarat High Court on July 30 last year on medical grounds.
Kodnani, who was termed by the lower court as a “kingpin” behind the massacre and sentenced to a 28-year jail term by a special trial court in Naroda Patiya area in Ahmedabad city, also became the first convict in the Naroda Patiya case who got regular bail from the High Court.
The three-time legislator was also the first woman to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case. Kodnani, the MLA who represented Naroda at the time of the 2002 riots, was made the Minister of State for Women and Child Development in 2007. She had to resign after her arrest in the case in March 2009.
In August 2012, a special court had awarded life imprisonment to Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 others for the 2002 riots here at Naroda Patiya. The massacre had taken place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.
The Naroda Patiya massacre case is one of the nine cases investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team which probed Godhra and post-Godhra riots in the year 2002.
Ninety-seven people were killed in Naroda Patiya area during the riots.
Source:: Indian Express
