The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Gujarat Police on former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi’s bail plea, PTI reported.
The Bajrang Dal leader, who has been sentenced to 21 years in jail in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case, told the court he is in “unsound physical condition” and underwent bypass surgery recently.
Bajrangi also challenged the Gujarat High Court’s decision to uphold his conviction on the basis of an alleged extra-judicial confession. The High Court had taken note of the “extra-judicial confessions” that Bajrangi and two other convicts made during a sting operation. Bajrangi claimed that the sting operation, conducted eight years after the incident, was “not even a direct evidence” as per the Indian Evidence Act. He also alleged that the case against him was “highly doubtful” as there were contradictions in the evidence and depositions recorded in the court.
Justices Kurian Joseph and S Abdul Nazeer, who heard the petition, said they were only hearing the bail aspect of the petition.
In April, the Gujarat High Court acquitted former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Maya Kodnani, who had been convicted in the case and sentenced to 28 years in jail. It upheld the conviction of 12 of the 29 people who had filed appeals and acquitted the remaining 17.
A mob had killed at at least 97 Muslims in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area on February 28, 2002.
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