Zee Media Bureau
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday granted bail to former minister Maya Kodnani in 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case.
A division bench of justices KS Jhaveri and KJ Thaker, after hearing temporary bail application seeking six months` relief by Kodnani, granted three-month bail to her on medical grounds.
Kodnani had moved the Gujarat HC for six months` bail on October 27 as she was diagnosed as suffering from intestinal tuberculosis, heart ailment and severe depression.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the riot cases, however, opposed the bail plea, saying that the treatment can be made available to her as per jail manual.
The court, after going through the documents and hearing both the sides, granted three months` conditional bail to Kodnani.
The court has asked Kodnani to furnish details to the SIT of her travels outside Gujarat for treatment.
In August 2012, a Special SIT court had awarded life imprisonment to BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 other convicts for the 2002 riots here at Naroda Patiya, where 97 people were brutally killed.
The court had named Kodnani, a sitting MLA and former Gujarat Minister, as "a kingpin of riots" in Naroda area and sentenced her to 26-year life imprisonment.
Kodanai, who was MLA from Naroda at the time of riots, was made Minister of State for Women and Child Development in 2007 in the Narendra Modi government. She had to resign after she was arrested in the case in March 2009.
The three-time legislator is the first woman to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case.
The massacre had taken place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.
(With Agency inputs)
