Naroda Patiya case: Former VHP leader Babu Bajrangi gets 3-month bail

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday granted temporary bail of three months to former VHP leader Babu Bajrangi, who is convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, on medical grounds.

A division bench of Justices Ravi Tripathi and RD Kothari allowed the interim bail plea moved by Bajrangi's wife seeking his release for 90 days for his eye treatment.

Bajrangi had moved the plea seeking temporary bail to undergo proper eye treatment. He had stated that he is turning blind gradually and that he needs to be out on bail for its treatment at a private hospital.

He is one of the 31 convicts in Naroda Patiya riot case of 2002 where 97 people of minority community were killed. Bajrangi was awarded 'imprisonment till death' by a special trial court in August 2012.

Bajarani had challenged his conviction before the High Court, but it had been stayed by the Supreme Court. The former VHP leader was earlier granted temporary bail five times by the Gujarat High Court on various grounds. Earlier, Bajrangi's wife Meena Patel had written a letter to Gujarat Governor OP Kohli seeking mercy to release her husband as he was losing his vision.

Naroda Patiya is one of the nine cases probed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). A Special SIT court had in August 2012 awarded life imprisonment to then BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 others for the 2002 riots at Naroda Patiya.