Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Maya Kodnani and 66 other accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case have been acquitted by a special court in Gujarat on Thursday.
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 were probed by a Supreme-Court appointed Special Investigation Team.
Those acquitted include Kodnani, former VHP leader Jaydeep Patel and ex-Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.
There were a total of 86 accused in the case, of which 18 died during the pendency of the trial, while one was discharged earlier by the court.
Who is Maya Kodnani?
- Kodnani was a minister in the Gujarat government in 2002 when the riots broke out following the burning of a coach of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra.
- In 2012, she was convicted in the Naroda Patiya riots case in which 97 people were killed. However, in 2018, the Gujarat High Court overturned the trial court’s verdict and acquitted her.
- Daughter of a RSS worker who immigrated to India due to partition, Kodnani attended a Gujarati medium school. She became a doctor after attending Baroda Medical College. She had also set up a maternity hospital in Naroda.
- Kodnani entered into electoral politics with a victory in the Ahmedabad civic elections in 1995.
- She was first elected from the Naroda seat in 1998 and retained the seat in 2002 and 2007 Assembly elections. In 2007, she was appointed as the minister of state for women and child development in Gujarat.
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