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Killer minister gets bail
WSN Network
AHMEDABAD:
Accused of leading blood thirsty mobs that killed some 100 Muslims,
former Gujarat Minister of State for Women’s Welfare, Mayaben
Kodnani, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Jaideep Patel, were
granted conditional bail by the Ahmedabad Sessions Court on Tuesday.
The Additional Sessions Judge, C. H. Patel, granted them the bail on
the conditions that they would co-operate in the investigation into
the Naroda-Patiya and Naroda Gaam massacres of 2002, would not leave
Gujarat
without the court’s permission, would surrender their passports and
would not try in any way to influence the witnesses.
Accused in the
two incidents of massacre, Ms. Kodnani and Mr. Patel surrendered
before the Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court
on March 27 after the Gujarat High Court cancelled their
anticipatory bail. After spending about a fortnight in SIT custody,
both were later sent to judicial custody and are since then behind
bars. Ms. Kodnani and Mr. Patel were accused of “instigating”
violent mobs to attack minorities in the two localities on the
outskirts of Ahmedabad while Ms. Kodnani was also alleged to have
distributed arms to the mobs and carried some inflammable material
in her car.
The accused,
however, have pleaded not guilty and had claimed that they were not
present at the site of the incidents as alleged by some witnesses.
The court, however, granted them bail on the ground that some other
accused in these cases as well as other incidents of massacre were
granted bail.
20
May 2009
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