Given life term and dubbed a “kingpin” by a sessions court in the Naroda Patiya case in which she was later cleared, Kodnani, 68, was among all the 69 people acquitted by the Ahmedabad special trial court in the Naroda Gam massacre, on Thursday.
A BJP worker starting the early 1990s, Kodnani was seen as among the most promising leaders of the BJP in the state, as both a woman and because of her educational qualifications as a gynaecologist. She served as president of the Ahmedabad BJP Mahila Morcha, and in 1995, was elected to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporatiton, rising to the all-important post of chairman of its standing committee.
In 1998, Kodnani won as an MLA from Ahmedabad city’s Naroda constituency, defeating the Congress candidate by a huge margin of over 74,500 votes.
Far from hurting, the 2002 riots saw her win the same seat again by over 1 lakh votes. In 2003, the BJP elevated her as president of the BJP unit in Ahmedabad. Her stature in the party rose further in 2007, when she got elected to the Assembly again from Naroda, this time by over 1.80 lakh votes.
This time, Narendra Modi inducted Kodnani as Minister of State (MoS), Women & Child Development and Higher Education, in his Cabinet in Gujarat.
However, Kodnani’s arraignment as an accused in the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam riots case halted her career abruptly. They were the two biggest massacres reported in Ahmedabad city, both on February 28, 2002. In Naroda Gam, 11 Muslims were burnt to death after mobs set their houses on fire in a locality known as Muslim Mohalla under Kumbhar Vas. In neighbouring Naroda Patiya that same day, Hindu mobs attacked a Muslim-dominated locality, in which officially 97 people were killed.
In both the cases, Kodnani was accused of serious charges like murder, attempted murder, criminal conspiracy, arson and allied charges under various statutory provisions.
On March 27, 2009, the Gujarat High Court rejected Kodnani’s anticipatory bail in the Naroda Patiya case. She resigned as MoS and surrendered before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the Supreme Court to further probe the 2002 Godhra train carnage case as well as eight other gruesome cases recorded in various parts of the state in the aftermath, including the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam cases.
In August 2012, a special trial court convicted Kodnani — then a sitting BJP MLA — and 30 others in the Naroda Patiya case, awarding them life imprisonment. Presiding judge Jyotsana Yagnik called Kodnani the “kingpin” in the case.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, the BJP fielded another woman doctor, Nirmala Wadhwani, as its candidate from Naroda. Wadhwani won, but the party’s victory margin fell to around 58,000 votes.
Kodnani appealed against her conviction in the Gujarat High Court. Eventually, in April 2018, a division bench of the High Court, comprising Justices Harsha Devani and A S Supehia, acquitted Kodnani and 17 others in the case. By then, Kodnani was already out on bail, on medical grounds.
In the recent Assembly elections in Gujarat, Kodnani was seen campaigning for BJP candidates.
On Thursday, as the second case against Kodnani fell through, BJP leaders said nothing stood in her way to enter politics again. “I don’t think she will fight elections now, but even if she decides to do so, I’d say, ‘Why not?’. She has faced trial in both the cases and has been acquitted by the courts. She enjoys immense respect and popularity among party workers,” said a senior party leader.
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