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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