SC refuses to extend Kodnani's interim bail

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to extend the interim bail granted to former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani, who has been convicted in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case.

A bench of justices H L Dattu and S A Bobde refused to extend the relief and said she will have to surrender herself as her interim bail was to expire today.

The court, which had extended her bail twice till February 24, turned down her plea for further extension of bail on the ground that she is not well and could not be given treatment in jail. The High Court had granted interim bail till February.

The bench, however, allowed her to approach the Gujarat High Court for seeking regular bail.

Kodnani filed the petition challenging the February 8 order of the Gujarat High Court declining to extend her three months temporary bail granted on medical grounds on November 12 last year.

She had sought extension of bail by 180 days. The trial court had in August 2012 awarded life imprisonment to Kodnani, Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 29 others for Naroda Patiya riots in which 97 people were killed.

The trial court had dubbed Kodnani, a sitting BJP MLA and former minister in Narendra Modi government, as "kingpin of riots" in Naroda area and sentenced her to 26 years imprisonment.