Life term for 32 in riot case

Life term for 32 in riot case


A special court which had on Wednesday convicted 32 people, including a former woman minister, for killing 97 Muslims in an industrial suburb here during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, sentenced them to life imprisonment on Friday.

While 53-year-old Maya Kodnani, who was the junior minister for women and child development in the Narendra Modi government, has been awarded a 28-year jail term, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi has been sent to prison till death.

Seven of the 32 convicts have been sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment, 22 others will serve minimum 14 years in prison, and one convict is absconding in the largest single case of mass murder during the bloody Hindu-Muslim clashes.

Kodnani, a Sindhi gynaecologist, will first serve 10 years in jail for her conviction under Sec 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means). After this, her 18-year life imprisonment under Sec 302 (murder) and other sections will begin, though the jail sentences usually run concurrently.

The special court judge, Jyotsana Yagnik, who had recently walked through every affected lane of the Naroda Patiya locality inhabited by 800 poor Muslim families, observed that

Kodnani was a legislator (of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) at the time of the genocidal violence and deserved a harsh punishment. The judge, who had acquitted 29 of the accused in the case, also asked the state government give Rs500,000 to a Muslim woman who was gangraped when Hindu rioters, some armed with swords and pistols, attacked and burnt alive 97 men, women and children in five hours on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train fire incident in whichm59 Hindus were killed.

On the fateful day, the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad had given a call for a state shutdown to protest the Godha deaths and the appeal was supported by the Modi government.

Kodnani, a three-time MLA from Naroda area, who was considered to be close to Modi, is the first woman and first MLA to be convicted and jailed in a post-Godhra riots case.

Kodnani and Bajrangi were held guilty under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of India Penal Code (IPC) and the prosecution had sought the maximum punishment of death sentence for all the convicts. Lawyers of the convicts had, however, had sought leniency from the court.

As many as 327 witnesses, comprising eye witnesses, victims, doctors, police personnel, government officials, forensic experts and journalists including Ashish Khetan, who conducted a TV sting operation on the accused, were examined by the court. Initially, 46 people were arrested by the Gujarat Police, whereas 24 more people were nabbed after the Supreme Court handed over the probe to a special investigation team in 2008.