An Indian court has sentenced a senior BJP party member to 28 years in jail for her part in murdering 97 people in the 2002 Gujarat religious riots.
Maya Kodnani, an ex-minister and aide to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, is the most senior figure so far convicted.
Thirty others received life sentences for their part in the killings in Naroda Patiya, a suburb of Ahmedabad.
The riots left more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead, and were among India's worst outbreaks of unrest.
The rioting began after 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire blamed on Muslims in the town of Godhra.
Ms Kodnani was not a minister at the time of the riots, but was appointed junior minister for women and child development by Mr Modi in 2007.
She quit her post when she was arrested in 2009 in connection with the massacre but remained a member of the state assembly.
On Wednesday she was convicted of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy. Thirty-one others were also found guilty of involvement in the case. One of those convicted has never been brought to justice and was tried in absentia.
Babu Bajrangi, a former leader of the militant Hindu group Bajrang Dal, was found guilty on the same charges as Ms Kodnani. He has been sentenced to remain in jail until he dies.
'Kingpin of riots'
Announcing the sentences on Friday, Judge Jyotsna Yagnik named Ms Kodnani as "a kingpin of riots" in the Naroda Patiya area.
"Communal riots are like cancer on constitutional secularism and the incident in Naroda Patiya was a black chapter in the history of the Indian constitution," the Press Trust of India quoted him as saying.
"Acts of communal [religious] violence are brutal, inhuman and shameful. It was a clear incident of human rights violation as 97 people were killed brutally within a day which included helpless women, children, aged persons.
"The climax of this inhuman and brutal act of violence was reflected in [the] murder of an infant, who was 20 days old," the judge said.
Following Ms Kodnani's conviction on Wednesday, Gujarat's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government quickly distanced itself from her saying that she had not been a state minister at the time of the riots.
Correspondents, however, say her conviction is an embarrassment for Mr Modi who elevated her to ministerial office in 2007 despite being aware that her role in the riots was being investigated.
Gujarat assembly elections are due later in the year and the Congress party is bound to use the court ruling to criticise Mr Modi during the campaign.
Mr Modi, touted by some as a future prime minister, has been accused of not doing anything to stop the riots - a charge he has always denied.
Ninety-five bodies were found after the Naroda Patiya massacre - the worst of the Gujarat riots cases - on 28 February 2002. The bodies of two other people missing after the massacre and presumed dead were never found.
The trial began in August 2009 and charges were brought against 62 people. One of the accused died during the trial.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19432982A gynecologist who was always more keen on politics than on her medical practice, Maya Kodnani’s fall from being a poster girl for the RSS in the state after being implicated in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre has been rapid and finally ended in tears on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Kodnani achieved infamy when she became the first woman and sitting MLA to be convicted for her involvement in the 2002 massacre in the Naroda Patiya area of Ahmedabad in which 97 people were killed in broad daylight.
An Indian Express report speaks about how Kodnani, the daughter of a staunch RSS worker who immigrated to India due to Partition, studied in a Gujarati medium school and joined the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti before entering Baroda Medical College where she became a doctor.
Kodnani had set up a maternity hospital in Kubernagar in Naroda, but then quickly began her political ascent with victories in the Ahmedabad civic elections in 1995 and by 1998 she had become an MLA.
In 2002 during the communal riots that engulfed Ahmedabad following the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, Kodnani was accused of instigating the rioters, firing a pistol and even distributing arms that she had transported to Naroda in her car.
However, the minister denied the claims and said she had been attending the State Assembly at the time was caught out by statements of witnesses and mobile phone records that showed she was in Naroda at the time of the violent riot.
Dildar Umrav Saiyed, a witness said that he was working at his garage, testified in court that he had seen the BJP leader distribute a bundle of sharp weapons. He said was offered money not to testify against the rising leader and even faced attacks
“I was offered lakhs of rupees but I refused,” Dildar was quoted as saying in a Telegraph report.
It wasn’t hard to see why. Kodnani’s star was on the rise after the riots. Mentored by none less than party patriarch LK Advani, she won the 2002 elections that followed the brutal riots by a thumping majority and by 2007 had been elevated to MoS for women and child development.
However, in 2009 when the Supreme Court appointed SIT summoned her for questioning in the case she refused to appear before them and was declared an absconder. After hiding, ironically accompanied by her police guard, Kodnani finally surrendered and resigned from the ministerial post.
She was then arrested but later released on bail by the high court. And with it came to an end the fiery oratory.
“I believe what happened in 2002 riots was wrong and I have sympathy for the victims, whether they are Muslims or Hindus,” she was quoted as saying in an interview while in relative political wilderness.
“I regularly attend the court hearings from morning till the end of the proceedings. Then I come to my clinic to attend patients and people who expect help from me,” she said.
However, as the verdict approached, the doctor remained largely absent from the maternity nursing home, choosing to instead spend more time in the state Assembly and appearing for the court hearings.
When the verdict was announced yesterday, Kodnani was asked by the court if she had anything to say, she said the charges against her were politically motivated. She and her husband, who is also a doctor, were in tears when she was convicted. Kodnani’s lawyers have opposed the prosecution’s plea for capital punishment on the grounds that her husband was not in good health and her son was studying abroad.
And as the court sentenced her to 28 years in jail, it perhaps also spelt the death of the political career of the fiery orator, who will spend a long time in prison cell.
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/maya-kodnani-from-bjp-poster-girl-to-28-years-in-jail-for-naroda-436232.html
Topic: Hindu woman/doctor convicted for Muslim massacre (Read 936 times)