Ahmedabad, August 29
Former minister in the Narendra Modi government, Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi were among 32 persons convicted by a special court today on the charges of conspiracy and murder in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case in which 97 persons from the minority community were killed.

Kodnani, a three-time MLA from Naroda area, who was considered to be close to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, and Bajrangi were held guilty under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC in the post-Godhra riots case.

Additional principal judge Jyotsna Yagnik in her verdict acquitted 29 other accused. The court, which heard arguments on the quantum of sentence, will decide on the punishment on August 31.

"The maximum punishment for criminal conspiracy and murder can be death sentence," advocate Shamshad Pathan, representing the victims, said.

One of the accused, Suresh, alias Richard Chara, was also convicted for rape. The court also convicted several of the accused on charges of rioting, arson, unlawful assembly and causing hurt with weapons.

Kodnani was arrested in March 2009 when she was a minister and had to resign from the post. She became an MLA for the first time in 1998 and won elections twice later from that constituency. She was made Minister of State for Women and Child Development in the Modi government in 2007.

The BJP state leadership had wasted no time taking her into the Cabinet, widely believed to be at the behest of L K Advani. She was the first Sindhi leader to become a minister in Gujarat since the state was founded in 1960.

Welcoming the verdict, Law Minister Salman Khurshid said in Delhi that the judgement enhances faith of the people in the legal system.

Playing down the court's order, BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said, "We have full trust in the judicial system of the country".

During the arguments on the quantum of sentence in the special court today, Special Public Prosecutor Akhil Desai sought death sentence for all the convicts. After hearing all the sides, judge Yagnik reserved the order on quantum of punishment for August 31, a lawyer said.

Desai argued that it is a fit case to be termed as the "rarest of rare" and the court should award capital punishment to the convicts. If the court takes another view, then it should at least award a minimum of 20 years of imprisonment to each of the convicts, he submitted. — PTI