2002 Naroda Patiya Riots: SC grants bail to Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi on medical grounds

New Delhi, Mar 07: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, one of the convicts in the Naroda Patiya case.

Bajrangi is lodged at Sabarmati Central Jail since 2012 after being sentenced to 21 years in jail in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in which 97 people were killed by a mob during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The development comes weeks after the Gujarat government informed the Supreme Court, in reply to a bail plea that Bajrangi had filed last year, that he was "in bad shape".

On 23 January, the Supreme Court had granted regular bail to four convicts in the Naroda Patiya massacre case - Umeshbhai Surabhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Padmendrasinh Jaswantsinh Rajput and Harshad alias Mungda Jila Govind Chhara Parmar.

The rioting occurred on 28 February, 2002, in the Naroda Patiaya area of Ahmedabad, where a mob had killed 97 people, most of them from a minority community.

The massacre followed the torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, which killed 59 people and triggering statewide riots.