High court rejects SIT plea for cancellation of Bajrangi’s bail

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court (HC) on Monday rejected the petition filed by the Supreme Court-mandated special investigation team (SIT) demanding cancellation of bail of main accused in the post-Godhra riots in Naroda Gam, Babu Bajrangi.
This was the only application filed by SIT seeking bail cancellation of any of the riots accused after the SC granted permission to the probe agency to do so in cases, wherein the accused had been released on bail due to pendency and stay on trial. Besides this case, SIT has sought bail cancellation of those accused who failed to follow conditions imposed on them by courts.
Bajrangi was granted bail in this case by then additional sessions judge S H Vora, who is now presiding officer in the trial, on October 7, 2002 after the charge sheet was filed. In another case of Naroda Patia, Bajrangi was released on bail by the HC the next year.
In August last year, the state government and SIT sought cancellation of Bajrangi’s bail and contended that the lower court’s order was erroneous and that he should not have been granted bail in such a grave crime. They also wanted Bajrangi to get back to prison in view of new evidence collected by SIT. It was in the form of his confession made during a sting operation in which Bajrangi is seen boasting about his heroics during the riots and also describing how belly of a pregnant woman was slit open and fetus was brought out and killed on February 28, 2002.
In rebuttal, Bajrangi’s counsel Yogesh Lakhani submitted that he had never breached any of the conditions, and that the lower court’s decision of granting bail to him was on basis of evidence available at that point of time. The new evidence cited by SIT came on record after 2007. Moreover, the trial was also at the stage of completion and majority of important eye witnesses were examined.