Kodnani, Bajrangi to be sentenced in Naroda Patiya case

Ahmedabad, Aug 31: With the sentencing in the Naroda Patiya case expected today, the court will decide the quantum of sentence for the accused that includes BJP MLA and former minister in the

government Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi. They were among the 32 people convicted by a special court in the Naroda Patiya massacre, one of the worst

case, that saw 97 people from the minority community killed.

A special court in Ahmedabad will decide on the quantum of punishment for the 32 convicted. Special court judge Jyotsana Yagnik will give out the judgement after slapping them with charges of conspiracy and murder. Twenty-nine others were also acquitted in the case.

The verdict has become a serious blot in the BJP government in the state after Kodnani, a three-time MLA from Naroda area, and the first woman MLA in the Modi government was named in the post-Godhra riots case. Charged under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of India Penal Code (IPC), the prosecution has sought the maximum punishment of death sentence for all the convicts.

Kodnani's conviction will cast aspersions on Narendra Modi's government with the activists and anti-Modi voices trying hard to establish that the riots were carried out with the support of the state government at that time.

The Naroda Patiya massacre has been noted as the largest single case of mass murder during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The riots sparked following the Sabarmati Express train carnage near Godhra station. The case is being probed by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT).

OneIndia News