Naroda Patiya riots: Supreme Court grants bail to four convicts, says 'conviction order is debatable'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted bail to four convicts in the Naroda Patiya massacre case in Gujarat, in which 97 people were killed by a mob during the 2002 riots in the state. “The conviction order is debatable,” the bench said. A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar Tuesday granted bail to the four convicts — Umeshbhai Surabhai Bharwad, Rajkumar, Padmendrasinh Jaswantsinh Rajput and Harshad alias Mungda Jila Govind Chhara Parmar. The Gujarat High Court had on 20 April last year upheld the conviction of 12 of the 29 accused who were pronounced guilty on various charges by the trial court and had acquitted 17 others, including former BJP minister Maya Kodnani. The rioting had taken place on 28 February, 2002, in the Naroda Patiaya area of Ahmedabad where a mob had killed 97 people, most of them from a minority community. The massacre had taken place a day after the torching of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, which had triggered state-wide riots.