Ahmedabad, May 15: Under attack from right wing groups, Gujarat government has witheld its decision to seek 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 government came a month after its decision to endorse the Supreme Court-appointed SIT's recommendation to seek 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 SIT to file an appeal in the High Court seeking capital punishment for Kodnani, Bajrangi and others, who were awarded life term by a lower court.
"The decision has been withheld for now as we have to take opinion of state advocate general," Gujarat Finance Minister and spokesperson Nitin Patel told PTI here yesterday.
"A final decision will be taken after advocate general gives his opinion," Patel added.
State legal department sent a letter, dated May 10, to the office of Government Pleader in Gujarat High Court Prakash Jani, which processes the filing of appeals, informing the decision of withdrawal of 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 me back the draft of appeals which we had prepared and sent to his office on May 6," special public prosecutor for SIT, Prashant Desai, told PTI.
Kodnani, who was earlier a minister in the Modi government, was sentenced to 28 years in prison by a Special Court in August 2012 in connection with the post-Godhra riots case in which 96 people were killed.
Bajrang Dal activist Babu Bajrangi was sentenced to jail for his entire life, while eight others were given 31 years' jail term each in the same case.
Congress flayed the state government's decision, saying there has been no change in the mindset of Modi and his feelings about a community.
"There is a feeling that Modi is a protector of Hindus. Seeking death penalty for Kodnani and Bajrangi is a deadly attack on Hindus, who have different expectations from Modi," an editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' had said.
