Get Instant Loan up to ₹10 Lakh!
Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi, Jaydeep Patel acquitted in 2002 Gujarat Riots case: Who are they?
- The Ahmedabad-based court of S K Baxi, special judge for SIT cases, acquitted all the accused in one of the major post-Godhra riots cases which was probed by a Supreme-Court appointed Special Investigation Team.
A special court in Gujarat on Thursday acquitted all the sixty seven accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case. The brutal case saw eleven people killed. The acquitted include Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) leader and former minister of state Maya Kodnani, Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Jaydeep Patel and ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.
There were a total of 86 accused in the case, of which 18 died during pendency of the trial, while one was discharged earlier by the court.
The Ahmedabad-based court of S K Baxi, special judge for SIT cases, acquitted all the accused in one of the major post-Godhra riots cases which was probed by a Supreme-Court appointed Special Investigation Team.
Maya Kodnani
Maya Kodnani is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. She is also the former Minister of State for Women and Child Development in the Government of Gujarat. She held the position of a state minister during the post-Godhra riots in 2022.
Kodnani was convicted of orchestrating the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya massacres of the 2002 Gujarat riots on 28 February 2002, in which 97 Muslims, including 36 women and 35 children, were murdered by stabbing, dismemberment and being burned alive individually as well as in groups.
Witnesses testified that Kodnani was at the scene of the crimes, handed out swords to Hindu rioters, exhorted them to attack Muslims and at one point fired a pistol.
Bajrang Dal members Suresh Richard and Prakash Rathod told Tehelka's journalists on spy camera that Kodnani drove around Naroda all day, urging the mob to hunt Muslims down and kill them.
Mobile phone records also placed her at the scene and showed her to be in regular communication with the top police officials, the Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia and the Chief Minister's office.
VHP leader Jaydeep Patel
Hindu nationalist organisation, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) former Gujarat state general secretary, Jaydeep Patel is another accused in the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya massacres of the 2002 Gujarat riots, who was acquitted on Thursday.
According to reports and findings, Jaideep Patel was present in Godhra to attend to the victims of the incident, the victims of the Godhra train burning incident on 27 Fenruary 2022.
The trains carrying karsevaks or pilgrims, from a VHP-organized ceremony at Ayodhya, was burnt killing 59 people, including 25 women and 15 children.
Patel is believed to have had a role in the controversial decision taken to send the bodies of victims to Ahmedabad. The charred dead bodies were handed over to him by the executive magistrate of Godhra, allegedly at the behest of his senior officers, to be transported to Ahmedabad.
They were transported in 5 trucks, along with a police escort, to Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, reaching there at 4 A.M. on 28 February.
Patel testified to the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) that the BJP MLA's Maya Kodnani visited the hospital the next morning, and the Hindu mobs gathered at the hospital "thrashed them" for the inability of the Government to protect the karsevaks.
Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi
Babubhai Patel, known by his alias Babu Bajrangi, is a leader of the Gujarat-wing of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu right wing organization in India. He was a central figure during the 2002 Gujarat violence.
In 2007, the Indian journal Tehelka published a hidden-camera interview with Bajrangi, in which Bajrangi talks of his role in the violence against Indian Muslims in the Naroda Patiya massacre, a particularly intense episode of brutality during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
“We didn't spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don't want to be cremated, they're afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don't care if I'm hanged ... just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay ... I will finish them off … let a few more of them die ... at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die.” he was heard saying.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Business NewsNewsIndiaMaya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi, Jaydeep Patel acquitted in 2002 Gujarat Riots case: Who are they?
First Published:20 Apr 2023, 08:23 PM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High