AHMEDABAD, India, (Reuters) – A former Indian state minister was sentenced to 28 years in jail today for murder during one of the country’s worst religious riots, when up to 2,500 people, most of them Muslim, were hunted down and hacked, beaten or burnt to death in 2002.
Maya Kodnani, a sitting lawmaker for Gujarat state’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and 30 others were jailed for their role in the so-called Naroda Patiya massacre, the single bloodiest episode of the three-day riots.
Her conviction is an embarrassment for both the BJP – the country’s main opposition party – and Gujarat’s high-flying chief minister, Narendra Modi, who is lauded by foreign companies for his business-friendly policies and is often touted as the country’s next prime minister.
When the sentences were announced, a wail erupted from a crowd of women relatives of the convicted gathered outside the courthouse in Ahmedabad, the western state’s main city.
Most relatives of the victims stayed away, a sign that 10 years on, memories of the bloodletting by Hindu mobs still cast a pall of fear over the state’s Muslim community.
“We’re not risking our lives by going there today. It’ll be like walking into a lion’s mouth,” Nazir Khan, a school teacher in Naroda Patiya, a suburb of Ahmedabad, told Reuters.
Kodnani, Gujarat state’s minister for women and child development from 2007 to 2009, was the highest-profile figure to be convicted in connection with the riots.
Modi appointed her as a minister in his government despite the fact she had already been implicated in the killings, although she was not arrested until 2009.
Witnesses told investigators that 57-year-old Kodnani, a gynaecologist, played a leading role in the massacre of 95 people – 30 men, 32 women and 33 children – in Naroda Patiya.
Kodnani handed out swords to Hindu rioters, exhorted them to attack Muslims and at one point fired a pistol, according to witness statements seen by Reuters.
Kodnani arrived at the court in a police bus. Wearing a white saree, or traditional Indian dress, she was led into the building by women police officers. Also on the bus was Babubai Bajrangi, a Hindu nationalist firebrand who was accused of disembowelling a pregnant woman with a sword. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.
“Babubai, don’t worry. Lord Krishna is with you. You’re innocent,” chanted some supporters crowding around the bus.
The others convicted were sentenced to lengthy terms in jail.
The court earlier heard that police stood by while Hindu mobs attacked Muslims and told those pleading for help that they were “on holiday”. Some police also fired teargas canisters at Muslims gathered in the street, witnesses said.
