68 accused in the Naroda Gam massacre case, including former BJP legislator Maya Kodnani, were found not guilty

Babu Bajrangi and Maya Kodnani, both former leaders of the Bajrang Dal, were charged with participating in the Naroda Gam massacre.All 68 defendants in the 2002 Naroda Gam killing of 11 members of the Muslim community during the communal riots were exonerated by a special court in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Thursday. Babu Bajrangi and Maya Kodnani, both former leaders of the Bajrang Dal, were among the 86 defendants, 18 of whom passed away in the interim.

The Indian Penal Code sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with lethal weapons), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), and 153 (provocation for riots), among others, were among the allegations brought against the defendants.In riots that broke out in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Gam neighbourhood during a bandh scheduled to protest the Godhra train burning the day before, which murdered 58 passengers, predominantly Karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, eleven of them belonged to the Muslim minority.