Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi gets bail from SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi who was convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case. The court granted him bail on health grounds.

The Naroda Patiya riots was one of the worst incidents during communal conflagration that engulfed Gujarat,Bajrangi was a key conspirator in the massacre in Naroda Patiya area, where 97 Muslim persons were killed in the Godhra aftermath.

Bajrangi was awarded life until death after being convicted in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in 2002. He was named a key accused in the killing of 97 people in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area.. At least 97 Muslims were killed in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area on February 28, 2002, when a mob comprising thousands of people descended upon the locality and murdered them. The incident was one of the worst cases of mob violence during the Gujarat riots.

‎In 2007, Babu Bajrangi, in a Tehelka sting operation, was shown how he played an important role in the killing of Muslims in the Naroda Patitia massacre of 2002. ‎

In October, the Supreme Court had sought a response from the Gujarat Police on Bajrangi’s bail plea. Bajrangi had told the court he is in “unsound physical condition” and underwent a bypass surgery recently.

In April 2018, the Gujarat High Court had 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.

In January, the top court had granted bail to four convicts identified as Umeshbhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Harshad, and Prakashbhai Rathod in the case.

‎What did Babu Bajrangi say in the Tahelka sting operation?‎

‎When Babu Bajrangi began to commit genocide, he “did something like the heroic Maharana Pratap.” In a sting operation made in 2007 years from Tehelka, Bajrangi had described how they had acted to incite crowds to massacre Muslims in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, as well as bombs and guns. ‎

In this sting operation, Babu Bajrangi reported the death of 59 carservants at the Sabarmati Expressway at Godhra Station on 27th February, 2002. Bajrangi said to Tehelka, “Whatever happened I couldn’t afford it, and we gave them a befitting reply the next day.” ‎

When the Tehelka reporter asked if you were present when the massacre was executed, Babu Bajrangi said, “Yes, I was with them. After the Godhra incident, I returned to Neroda and took vengeance. ‘ ‎

He said, ‘ after killing them I returned, phoned the state’s interior minister and fell asleep. I felt I did some work like Maharana Pratap. I had heard about them, but on that day I showed what they did. ‘‎