Gujarat high court grants bail to former minister Maya Kodnani

The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former state minister Maya Kodnani, a convict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case.

Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years in prison by a Special court in Ahmedabad in August 2012 for her involvement in 2002 riot case at Naroda Patiya, where 97 people were killed.

A division bench of Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dholaria on Wednesday granted bail to Kodnani (59), whose petition challenging the judgement of the special court is pending before the Gujarat High Court since December 2012, largely on medical grounds and her age. The bail will be applicable till her appeal challenging the special court’s judgment is heard.

She has been suffering from intestinal tuberculosis and undergoing electric shock therapy for the last few months. Her counsel had submitted reports and documents informing the court that she had not been responding to treatment.

Kodnani had stated in her bail application that she had moved the plea on merit since her appeal is not likely to be heard in the near future.

In November 2013, the high court had granted her temporary bail of three months on medical grounds.

A Special SIT court, in August 2012, awarded life imprisonment to Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 other convicts for the 2002 riots at Naroda Patiya.

The court had named Kodnani, then a sitting MLA and former Gujarat Minister, as ‘a kingpin of riots’ in Naroda area and sentenced her to 28-year life imprisonment.

Kodanai, who was MLA from Naroda at the time of riots, was made Minister of State for Women and Child Development in 2007 in the Narendra Modi government. She had to resign after she was arrested in the case in March 2009. The three-time legislator is the first woman to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case. The massacre had taken place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.