SC grants bail to four convicts in 2002 Naroda Patiya case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court granted bail to four convicts in 2002 Naroda Patiya case on Wednesday. These convicts are– Umeshbhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Harshad and Prakashbhai Rathod.

In 2002 post-Godhra riots, 97 people of the minority community were killed in Naroda Patiya area in Ahmedabad. In August 2012, a trial court convicted 32 persons and acquitted 29 accused. All the convicts, including former MLA Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi were awarded life imprisonments.

Last year, pointing at “shortfalls” in probe, the Gujarat High Court acquitted Kodnani and 17 others, but upheld the conviction of 13 people including ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi. 

"It is during the course of investigation by the SIT that the name of ...Mayaben Kodnani was revealed. From the evidence of the witnesses who have named Mayaben Kodnani, it emerges that many of them have referred to her having come in a white Maruti car. However, no efforts have been made to ascertain as to whether the said accused owned any white Maruti car at the relevant time," the court said.