Acquittal spree: Maya Kodnani acquitted by HC in deadly Naroda Patiya massacre case

coastaldigest.com news network
April 20, 2018

Ahmedabad, Apr 20: A week after hardline Hindutva leader Swami Aseemanand was acquitted by an NIA court in the Makkah Masjid terror attack case, the Gujarat High Court today acquitted former state BJP minister Mayaben Kodnani in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case.

The Naroda Patiya massacre was one of the worst incidents during the Gujarat genocide of 2002. At least 97 innocent Muslims were killed on February 28 at Naroda by a mob of approximately 5,000 people, organised by the Bajrang Dal, a wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party which was in power in the Gujarat State Government.

Kodnani, a confidante of then-Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, and a key accused in the deadly massacre, was convicted by a special SIT court in August 2012 and sentenced to 28 years in prison.

The high court, however, upheld the sentence against the other key accused Babu Bajrangi, a prominent Bajrang Dal leader. Bajrangi had been sentenced to imprisonment till life. The high court named Bajrangi and three others as key conspirators.

Kodnani's personal assistant, Kirpal Singh Chabda, was also acquitted. In total, the court upheld the conviction of 12 persons and acquitted 16 who were found guilty by a special court.

The judgement was pronounced by a division bench of Justice Harsha Devani and Justice A S Supehia on appeals filed by Kodnani and others against their conviction in the case.

The high court had reserved the order last August after the hearing concluded against the judgement of the special court.

The special court had sentenced 32 people, including Maya and Bajrangi. Seven other accused were given enhanced life imprisonment of 21 years, which they will serve after undergoing 10 years' imprisonment under IPC Section 326 (causing grievous hurt). The remaining accused were given simple life imprisonment of 14 years.

The trial court had also acquitted 29 other accused in the case for want of evidence. This judgement was challenged by the SIT, even as those convicted challenged the lower court's order in the high court.

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News Network
March 2,2020

New Delhi, Mar 2: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a curative petition filed by convict Pawan Kumar Gupta who was sentenced to death in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

A five-judge bench headed by Justice N V Ramana said that no case is made out for re-examining the conviction and the punishment of the convict.

Other members of the bench were justices Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan.

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News Network
July 9,2020

Ujjain, Jul 9: Kanpur encounter main accused Vikas Dubey has been arrested at a police station here on Thursday, as per sources in the Uttar Pradesh government.

"Vikas Dubey, the main accused in Kanpur encounter case, has been arrested at a police station in Ujjain," said UP government sources.

Dubey is the main accused in the encounter that took place in Kanpur last week, in which a group of assailants allegedly opened fire on a police team, which had gone to arrest him.

Eight police personnel were killed in the encounter.

Earlier today, Bahua Dubey and Prabhat Mishra, close aides of the main accused, were killed in separate encounters in Etawah and Kanpur respectively.

Whereas, Shyamu Bajpai, also an aide to Dubey, has been arrested by Chaubeypur police following an encounter. He carried a reward of Rs 25,000. Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force (STF) had gunned down Vikas Dubey's close aide Amar Dubey in Hamirpur district, earlier on Wednesday.

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News Network
April 23,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 23: Amid opposition charges, the Kerala government on Tuesday constituted a two-member committee to examine whether the privacy of personal and sensitive data of COVID-19 patients has been protected under the agreement entered by it with US-based IT firm Sprinklr.

The committee, headed by former Special IT Sscretary M Madhavan Nambiar and former health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan, will also ascertain whether adequate procedures were followed while finalising the arrangements with the private company.

The Opposition Congress has been levelling charges that the collection of data by the US firm violated the fundamental rights of the patients.

In its order, state government said it had initiated steps to set up a Data Analytics platform to integrate data from various sources available in the government to meet the "exigency of a massive and unprecedented surge of epidemic".

The committee will also examine whether deviations, if any, are fair, justified and reasonable considering the extraordinary and critical situation faced by the state, it said.

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to file its reply by April 24 on a plea seeking to quash its contract with the US-based firm.

Expressing concern over the confidentiality of the citizen's data processed by a third party, the court sought to know why the sanction of the law department was not taken before finalising the agreement.

The court hailed the state government's fight against COVID-19, but said it is concerned about data confidentiality.

The government informed the court that the agreement with Sprinklr has safeguards for data protection "as per standard practices of software as a service model."

The ward-level committees, set up by the government for the anti-coronavirus fight, collect information of those under home isolation, the elderly and those at the risk of the disease, using a questionnaire and later uploads it on the server of the private agency.

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