A day after the Gujarat High Court granted her bail, former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani, who was convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case, was released from jail custody on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the High Court on Thursday dismissed the application of the Special Investigating Team (SIT) seeking a stay on the bail order. A Division Bench of Justices V.M. Sahai and R.P. Dholeria termed the Supreme Court-appointed investigation agency’s application “infructuous.”
“The application came up after the bail order was implemented. We mentioned it at 11 a.m., but the office took time, so then we moved the application at 2.30 p.m. However, the court said the bail order has already been implemented as Ms. Kodnani was released around 1.30 p.m.,” special public prosecutor Prashant Desai told The Hindu .
The SIT plans to write to the State government requesting it to challenge the bail order in the Supreme Court, Mr. Desai said. Ms. Kodnani, who was granted bail on medical grounds, is seriously ill. She is the first of the 32 accused in the case to come out on bail.
