Ahmedabad/New Delhi: Gujarat High Court on Friday acquitted former BJP minister Maya Kodnani in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case in which 97 people were killed by a mob, while upholding the conviction of former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.
Kodnani, who was made a minister in the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat after the riots, had been described as the "kingpin" in the Naroda massacre by the trial court that sentenced her to 28 years in jail in August 2012. She was out on bail.
Coming down heavily on the Gujarat government which had sought enhancement of sentence of the convicts, the high court said on Friday: "You just indulge in lip service."
The state government had not opposed the release of the accused on bail but "now you are asking for enhancement of their sentence", the judges said.
A division bench of Justices Harsha Devani and A.S. Supehiya said Kodnani should be given the benefit of doubt because of inconsistencies in the statements of witnesses.
The BJP celebrated her acquittal, and accused the Congress of trying to implicate its leaders in false cases.
"The court today (Friday) has acquitted Mayaben Kodnani and other leaders in the Naroda Patiya case.... The judgments one after the other are exposing the Congress and the Opposition for accusing BJP leaders of all kinds of acts that they never committed," BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said in New Delhi.
Sakeela Ansari, eight members of whose family were killed in the Naroda massacre and who had deposed during the trial, said the judiciary had failed her. "This is a dark day. I had seen with my own eyes what happened there. If after saying all this (in court), the court acquits those who were involved in killing members of my family, then what kind of justice is this?" she asked.
Kodnani, then the MLA from Naroda, had been found guilty by the trial court of instigating the mob that killed 97 people in one of the worst flare-ups during the post-Godhra riots.
"I had seen Maya Kodnani at a distance of just 25-30 metres. I am disappointed by the verdict. Mayaben had come not once but twice to the area on the day of the incident. How can the court deny what we had seen by our own eyes," said another survivor, Salim Sheikh, who too had deposed during the trial.
The high court upheld the conviction of Bajrangi and found him guilty of criminal conspiracy (IPC Section 120B) along with two other convicts, Prakash Rathod and Suresh Jhala. But while the trial court had sentenced Bajrangi to imprisonment till death, the high court reduced his sentence to 21 years of rigorous imprisonment without remission.
The conviction of 13 of the 32 people pronounced guilty on various charges by the trial court was upheld. Eighteen, including Kodnani, were acquitted. One convict had died.
The high court on Friday convicted three people who were acquitted by the trial court. Their quantum of sentence will be announced on May 9.
The rioting took place on February 28, 2002, in the Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad where a mob killed 97 people, most of them from a minority community.
BJP's Lekhi linked the Judge B.H. Loya and Kodnani cases with the impeachment motion moved against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and alleged that the Congress was trying to "demean, degrade and denigrate" the judiciary after its "conspiracies" to implicate BJP leaders were getting defeated one after the other.
