Maya Kodnani, 16 others acquitted in Naroda Patia massacre case

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat high court on Friday acquitted 17 persons, including Maya Kodnani, and upheld conviction of 12 persons, including Babu Bajrangi, in the 2002 Naroda Patia massacre case in which 97 persons were killed.
Kodnani, who was named as 'kingpin of riots' in Naroda Patia massacre by the SIT court, has been acquitted by granting her the benefit of doubt because none of 11 witnesses first talked about her involvement earlier.There were contradictions in versions before SIT in 2008. Witnesses said that she had alighted from a vehicle at Naroda Patia, but none of police witnesses said so. "Maya Kodnani's delayed nailing in the case can not be accepted," the court observed.
HC has reduced punishment for all the convicts to 21 years rigorous imprisonment. Bajrangi was a gainer here as his sentence of jail until death has been commuted to a jail term of 21 years. HC is to decide on two convicts' appeals in the post-lunch session. In all, 32 persons were convicted by the special SIT court out of which HC will decide on 31 appeals as one convict had died while the appeal was pending.
The HC has convicted three persons - Umesh Bharwad, PJ Rajput and advocate Rajkumar Chaumal - out of 29 persons who were acquitted by the SIT court in 2012. The HC will decide on their punishment on May 9.
Bajrangi has been held guilty of criminal conspiracy along with two others Prakash Rathod and Suresh alias Richard Didawala. Bajrangi is nailed on testimonies by four cops.
The bench of Justice HN Devani and Justice AS Supehia refused to hold sting operation by Tehlka as admissible evidence, but upheld journalist Ashish Khetan's deposition as valid evidence. This has led to upholding conspiracy charges against the trio - Bajrangi, Rathod and Richard.
The HC has turned down victims' appeal for compensation. The HC has rejected state government's appeal for enhancement in punishment by castigating it on the ground that "it is merely paying lip service". The judges observed that the state government never opposed the temporary bail pleas filed by the accused by pointing out that they were involved in heinous crimes.
The HC said that it has evaluated the cases on 'two credible witness' test. The court rapped Gujarat police for whiling away time in not recording witness statements and not naming accused persons.
In 2012, special judge Jyotsna Yagnik punished 32 persons including former minister Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and acquitted 29 others. Kodnani was awarded a 28-year jail term and Bajrangi was awarded imprisonment till his last breath. Ten persons got jail for 31 years, while the rest were handed down 24-year imprisonment.
Appeals were filed by the convicts against the trial court order, by the probe agency – the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) seeking enhancement in punishment, and some of the victims against the acquittals.
A bench headed by Justice Harsha Devani heard arguments from all three sides for more than eight months. Proceedings began on December 19, 2016 and concluded in August last year. The HC judges had also visited the crime scene once.
After the appeals were filed in the HC, this case was became controversial after six judges — Justices Akil Kureshi, M R Shah, K S Jhaveri, G B Shah, Sonia Gokani and R H Shukla – recused themselves from hearing the appeals. Despite resistance from the SIT and the victims, Justice R R Tripathi decided to go ahead and hear Kodnani’s appeal expeditiously, by delinking it from other appeals. This took the issue to the SC, which stayed proceedings for a while. They resumed after Justice Tripathi’s retirement.
This was the first case probed and prosecuted by the SIT in which it did not demand the death penalty for the convicts in its appeals. The SIT did not even seek enhancement of punishment for Kodnani on the grounds that it did not receive sanction to do so from the state government.