Agencies

Agencies

Agencies

Agencies

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat High Court acquitted former state minister Maya Kodnani in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, citing lack of evidence to prove her involvement in the violence where a mob butchered 97 people.Kodnani was among 32 people who were convicted in the case by a special trail court in 2012. On Friday, the high court held 12 of them, including Bajrang Dal activist Babu Bajrangi , guilty. It acquitted 18 people, while two had died while the hearing was going on.The trial court had sentenced Kodnani to 28 years’ incarceration, after an investigation by a Special Investigation Team ( SIT ) constituted by the Supreme Court.The one time poster girl of the RSS and a gynaecologist by profession, Kodnani had managed a berth in the Gujarat cabinet in 2007, thanks to her proximity to BJP patriarch LK Advani.“We had faith in judiciary and we thank them. Our faith in judiciary has been upheld,” her husband Surendra Kodnani said.The high court found another high profile accused, Babu Bajrangi, guilty, but reduced his sentence to 21years from jail till death.Government counsel Prashant Desai told the media that the court had maintained that Bajrangi’s crime was similar to that of others convicted and on the parity of sentence, it was cut to 21years.Desai said while 11 witnesses had said Kodnani was present in Naroda and delivered a speech before leaving the place, the court found contradictions in their statements.Also, none of the police witnesses mentioned her presence.“The court gave prominence to police witnesses,” Desai said, adding that Kodnani’s name did not also figure in the initial investigations in 2002 and cropped up only in 2008 after the SIT initiated investigations.BJP president Amit Shah had deposed before the court last September and stated that Kodnani was in the assembly at 8.30 am on February 28, 2002 — the day the massacre took place — and that he had met her that day also at the Sola Civil Hospital between 9.30 am to 9.45 am where she was consoling the families of the victims of the Godhra train burning.A number of judges, including Justices Akil Kureshi, MR Shah, KS Jhaveri, GB Shah, Sonia Gokani and RH Shukla had recused themselves from hearing the appeals against the special court verdict.