NEW DELHI: The Gujarat High Court on Friday acquitted Maya Kodnani, a former minister in the BJP government in the state who was sentenced to 28 years in jail by a trial court for her alleged role in the 2002 riots. The HC, though, upheld the conviction of another high-profile accused, Bajrang Dal’s firebrand leader Babu Bajrangi, in the Naroda Patiya riot case in which 97 Muslims were killed by a mob.
A division bench of Justices Harsha Devani and AS Supehiya also confirmed the convictions of 13 other accused including Bajrangi while it acquitted 18 of the 32 people convicted by the trial court in 2012.
The bench said 63-year-old Kodnani, a medical doctor by training, deserved to be given the benefit of doubt as there was inconsistency in the statements of witnesses. The trial court had described Kodnani as “the kingpin of the riots”.
A Special Investigation Team had told the trial court that a day after the Godhra train burning of February 27, 2002, in which 59 Hindu volunteers were killed, 11 witnesses saw Maya Kodnani inciting mobs in the Naroda area. Bajrangi was sentenced to life imprisonment till death by the trial court. However, the HC reduced his sentence to 21 years of rigorous imprisonment without remission. The bench handed down the same imprisonment to 12 others, whose convictions it upheld.