Memon's Execution Focuses Spotlight On Gujarat's Naroda Patiya Convicts

NEW DELHI: It was a coincidence that the hearing of the Naroda Patiya case seeking justice for the cold blooded murder of 97 Muslims in 2002 came up for a new round of hearing in the Gujarat High Court even as the then impending execution of Mumbai terror accused Yakub Memon was being hotly debated. But the coincidence has trained social media spotlights on the case in which the two main accused Babubhai Patel and Maya Kodnani served with a life imprisonment sentence are both out on bail.

Facebook and Twitter are witnessing an intense battle between those questioning the bail and trolls supporting the BJP and RSS even as the survivors and relatives of Naroda Patiya victims wait for justice well over a decade after the horrific massacre.

In fact one of the most graphic descriptions of the incident came from Babubhai Patel, better known as Babu Bajrangi, himself when he was recorded on a hidden camera by the magazine Tehelka in 2007 as saying, “We didn't spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don't want to be cremated, they're afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don't care if I'm hanged ... just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay ... I will finish them off … let a few more of them die ... at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die.”

Bajrangi was recorded in the video as claiming that he had called the state Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Jaideep Patel at the time, to inform them about the killings. He was later arrested, and then released on bail. In fact he has been given bail at least six times by the courts, the last earlier this month as a ten day extension on a three month bail given to him by the courts in April this year on medical grounds. He had said that he was turning blind and needed treatment. Bajrangi was as the name suggests, leader of Gujarat’s Bajrang Dal.

The second of the 31 accused in the case,(29 were acquitted) was Maya Surendrakumar Kodnani, a legislator of the BJP, close to the RSS was convicted for direct involvement in the massacre as well. Witnesses testified to her direct role in the vlolence at the time. She was convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison on August 31, 2010. The courts ruling described her as "kingpin of the Naroda Patiya massacre."

In fast paced development, on April 17 the Gujarat government decided to seek death penalty for her through an appeal in the High Court against the Special Courts judgement. On May 14,2013 the Gujarat government withdrew this. In November the same year she was given interim bail of three months for medical reasons. In July last year she was given bail for the same reasons.

The Naroda Patiya massacre is seen as “the largest single case of mass murder” in the 2002 Gujarat violence as it accounted for the largest number of deaths in one incident during the time. Now a two-judge bench of the Gujarat high court heard the submissions made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which probed the riot case on the directions of the Supreme Court.

Several cross appeals have been filed by the convicts, survivors and the prosecution agency SIT on the issue of enhancement of the sentence or for challenging the punishment awarded by the special trial court.

A division bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice K.S. Jhaveri had on July 15 recused themselves from hearing the appeals of the case maintaining they were approached by some of the accused persons.

Activist Teesta Setalvad who has been subjected to the “humiliating” harassment of a CBI raid recently and been in the forefront of this trial noted in a statement “It is shameful political vendetta. To stop us in our tracks, and prevent the systematic legal aid to Survivors, be it the Zakia Jafri case, the Naroda Patiya appeals (Kodnani and Bajrangi) and the Sardarpura and Odh appeals.” As Setalvad subsequently wrote, “we believe the reason for the redoubled attempts to humiliate me, to constrain my movement lie in the slow advance of the Zakia Jafri case.”

Witnesses, backed by Setalvad’s Citizens for Justice and Peace have challenged Kodnani’s bail. There have been attempts, as Setalvad says, to speed up her appeal in the Gujarat High court. One bid was objected to by survivors in the Supreme Court in April and the hearing was stayed for two months. Setalvad points out that again “on July 13, one of the two judges of the division bench assigned to begin hearing the case from that day recused himself, saying ‘not before me’.” This was followed by the two judges referred to earlier, recusing themselves with the information that they had been approached by some of the accused in what is a startling disclosure. And described by Setalvad as a “miracle”.

Earlier, as The Hindu reported, Kodnani’s advocate Nirupam Nanavati told the court during the hearing that her appeal against the conviction should be given priority and said that her name was not there in the first FIR of the case. On this, the high court said that it would not give priority to anybody and will conduct the hearing step by step.