Ahmedabad, 21 February 2014

The Gujarat High Court today granted a 15-day temporary bail to Babu Bajrangi, who was convicted by a special court in the 2002 Naroda Patia riot massacre case, in which 96 people were killed.

Bajrangi urgently moved a temporary bail plea through his son after his 80-year-old father died in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Babubhai demanded a fortnight period to perform the last rituals.

A division bench of Justice Jayant Patel and Justice Z.K. Syed granted temporary bail to him till March 6 on the surety bond of Rs 25,000. The High Court has also imposed certain conditions under which Bajrangi will not be able to leave the state.

In November 2013, the SIT had filed three appeals seeking that Bajrangi and five other convicts should undergo life sentence without being considered for remission.

Maya Kodnani

Maya Kodnani, a former minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet who was convicted for her involvement in one of the worst cases related to the 2002 Gujarat riots, was given electric shocks, considered the last line of treatment in major depressive disorder, on Thursday.

Kodnani has been showing severe suicidal tendencies and failed to respond to aggressive medicine treatment prompting the doctors to consider giving electric shocks.

Kodnani, convicted to 28 years of prison for involvement in 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre, has been hospital for a week now.

According to doctors attending her, the 58-year-old former child and welfare minister has displayed suicidal tendencies and has not responded to aggressive medication. She is being administered the shock treatment under anaesthesia.

Kodnani was granted three months’ bail in November on medical grounds.

The Gujarat High Court had recently rejected her plea for a six-month extension of the bail, but the Supreme Court granted her interim relief by giving her a week’s bail.