The Gujarat High Court granted bail on Thursday to Bajrangi, one of 32 people held guilty for the Naroda Patiya mob violence, one of the bloodiest episodes in the riots.
Babu Bajrangi, a politician sentenced to a life term for one of the worst incidents in the 2002 Gujarat riots, has been allowed to leave jail for three months for an eye operation.
The Gujarat High Court granted bail on Thursday to Bajrangi, one of 32 people held guilty for the Naroda Patiya mob violence, one of the bloodiest episodes in the riots. 97 people were massacred in that incident.
He will be shifted to a hospital in Chennai for an eye operation to prevent him going blind, his son Tarun Patel told NDTV.
Bajrangi's lawyer told the court yesterday that he is fast losing his eyesight, and needs to be urgently taken to Chennai for treatment. He cited medical reports from three ophthalmologists, all of whom claim that Bajrangi will go blind if he isn't immediately treated by retinal surgeons.
Bajrangi and another convict, former state minister Maya Kodnani, both appealed their conviction in the High Court in November 2012 . Earlier this month, the Supreme Court stayed a hearing on this appeal after being requested to do so by the Special Investigation Team that had investigated the riots case. Legally, both Bajrangi and Kodnani are entitled to temporary bail on various grounds, because their appeals are pending.
Bajrangi has already been granted bail before by the Gujarat High Court. Kodnani, who was sentenced to 28 years in jail, has been out on bail on health grounds since last July.