Babu Bajrangi withdraws bail plea from Gujarat HC

Ahmedabad

Convict Babu Bajrangi, undergoing life imprisonment in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, today withdrew his plea seeking regular bail after the Gujarat High Court observed the application should be rejected as bail cannot be granted only on medical grounds.

A division bench of Justices Mohinder Pal and R D Kothari ordered that Bajrangi’s application be “dismissed as withdrawn”.

Bajrangi had moved the HC through his advocate Pravin Gondaliya seeking regular bail on medical grounds for treating eye ailment and also sought suspension of the sentence awarded to him by a special trial court.

However, the HC observed the plea should be rejected as bail cannot be granted only on medical grounds because any prisoner can be provided with treatment as per the jail manual and existing laws.

This prompted Bajrangi’s lawyer to withdraw the application, which was allowed by the HC.

Bajrangi is out of jail since April 24 after a division bench of the HC comprising Justices Ravi Tripathi and R D Kothari granted him bail for 90 days for treatment of vision loss.

Bajrangi had been awarded life imprisonment in August 2012 along with then BJP MLA Maya Kodnani and 29 others in connection with the Naroda Patiya riot case in which 97 people were killed in the communal violence.

The riot had taken place a day after a coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt down by some assailants near Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002 which caused death of 54 ‘karsevaks’.

Naroda Patia massacre case is one of the nine cases of 2002 Godhra and post-Godhra riots, which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

Bajrangi is also one of the 83 accused in the Naroda Gam riot case in which 11 persons were killed on February 28, 2002.

PTI