The Supreme Court will consider on Thursday the bail petition of the former Gujarat Minister Maya Kodnani, sentenced to life imprisonment for 28 years in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riot case, on medical grounds.
Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani told a Bench of Justices H.L. Dattu and S.A. Bobde on Wednesday that she fell on a lamp at a temple on Tuesday and was admitted to a trauma-care centre.
Justice Dattu told counsel: “We are convinced she has suffered a burn injury. She is in a pitiable condition and she needs some relief. We will consider her plea. Meanwhile, you file an affidavit on her medical condition. We cannot grant any relief without hearing the State government.”
Kodnani was convicted and sentenced by the Special Judge, Ahmedabad. The Gujarat High Court last November granted her temporary bail for three months on medical grounds but declined to extend it by another three months.
Her appeal in the Supreme Court said she had intestinal TB, contracted during her 14-month stay in jail, and other diseases. The High Court had failed to appreciate that she had acute mental depression and a suicidal tendency, counsel said.
