Under attack from right wing groups, the Gujarat government has witheld its decision to seek the death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani — once a close aide of chief minister Narendra Modi — in a 2002 riots case.
The rethink by the Gujarat government came a month after its decision to endorse the Supreme Court-appointed SIT’s recommendation to seek the death sentence for Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and eight others in the Naroda Patiya riots case was slammed as “a deadly attack on Hindus”. The decision was also kept on hold in the case of Bajrangi and eight others.
The state government had given its consent to the SIT to file an appeal in the high court seeking capital punishment for Kodnani, Bajrangi and others, who were awarded life terms by a lower court.
“The decision has been withheld for now as we have to take the opinion of the state advocate-general,” Gujarat finance minister and spokesperson Nitin Patel said on Tuesday.
“A final decision will be taken after the advocate-general gives his opinion,” Mr Patel added.
The state legal department sent a letter, dated May 10, to the office of the government pleader in the Gujarat high court Prakash Jani, which processes the filing of appeals, informing it of the decision to withdraw a resolution dated April 14 giving consent to file appeals in the Naroda Patiya case.
“Yesterday I received a fax from the legal department informing that the government has decided to cancel the earlier decision of filing appeals. On receiving it, I have asked the government pleader’s office to send back to me the draft of appeals which we had prepared and sent on May 6,” SIT special public prosecutor Prashant Desai said.
Kodnani, who was earlier a minister in the Modi government, was sentenced to 28 years in prison in August 2012 in connection with the post-Godhra riots case in which 96 people were killed. Babu Bajrangi was sentenced to jail for his entire life while eight others were given 31 years in prison.
The Congress flayed the state government’s decision, saying there has been no change in the mindset of Mr Modi and his feelings about a community.
“There is a feeling that Modi is a protector of Hindus. Seeking the death penalty for Kodnani and Bajrangi is a deadly attack on Hindus,” an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana had said.