Court refuses to extend Maya Kodnani’s bail

Ahmedabad, 6 February 2014

Gujarat High Court today refused to extend bail to Maya Kodnani. The High Court had granted three-month temporary conditional bail to Maya Kodnani, a convict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case, on medical grounds in November last year after hearing temporary bail application seeking six months’ relief.

Kodnani’s advocate Hardik Dave had submitted before the court that she was suffering with tuberculosis of intestine besides heart disease and depression and had also submitted relevant medical documents to the court.

A Special SIT court had in August 2012 awarded 26-year life imprisonment to Maya Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 other convicts for the 2002 riots here at Naroda Patiya. 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 27 February, 2002.