Maya Surendrakumar Kodnani is a former

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

for Women and Child Development in the

Government of Gujarat The Government of Gujarat, also known as Gujarat Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Gujarat and its 33 districts. It consists of an executive of the legislators appointed by the Governor of Gujarat, a judiciary ...

. Kodnani joined the 12th legislative assembly of Gujarat after being elected to represent the constituency of Naroda as a candidate for the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

. In 2012, Kodnani was sentenced to twenty-eight years' imprisonment for her participation in the

Naroda Patiya massacre The Naroda Patiya massacre took place on 28 February 2002 at Naroda, in Ahmedabad, India, during the 2002 Gujarat riots. 97 Muslims were killed by a mob of approximately 5,000 people, organised by the Bajrang Dal, a wing of the Vishva Hindu P ...

during the

2002 Gujarat riots The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hin ...

but acquitted in 2018 by the Gujarat High Court. Kodnani was one of the most high-profile individuals to be convicted in the case, as well being the only woman among the accused.

Early life

Kodnani is the daughter of a Sindhi

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...

(RSS) worker who moved to India during the Indian

Partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

. She had her early education in a

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

-medium school. She also joined

Rashtra Sevika Samiti The Rashtra Sevika Samiti (''National Women Volunteers Committee'') is a Hindu nationalist women's organisation that parallels the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for men. Even though it is often referred to as the " Sister" of the RSS, the or ...

, the parallel organisation of RSS for women. Kodnani joined the

Baroda Medical College Baroda Medical College is a medical educational institution for undergraduate and postgraduate medical studies that comes under the Faculty of Medicine of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. It is located in the Raopura area at Vadodar ...

from where she did her

MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

and Diploma in Gynaecology and Obstetrics. She set up Shivam Maternity Hospital at Kubernagar in

Naroda Naroda is a fast-growing area in Ahmedabad, northeast of central Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat. History With the establishment of the Naroda Industrial Area in the 1980s, the town flourished; it was incorporated into Ahmedabad in ...

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

Political career

Kodnani began her political career with Ahmedabad civic elections in 1995. She was elected three times from the Naroda constituency as a

Member of the Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

for the

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

. In 1998, she won the election with a margin of 75,000 votes. In December 2002, shortly after

, she won by a margin of 110,000 votes. In 2007, her margin increased 180,000 votes. After winning the elections in 2007, she was named as Minister for Women and Child Development of Gujarat in

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

's BJP government, but resigned from the post in 2009 pending her arrest as accused for the

Role in the 2002 Gujarat riots

Kodnani was convicted of orchestrating the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya massacres of the 2002 Gujarat riots on 28 February 2002, in which 97 Muslims, including 36 women and 35 children, were murdered by stabbing, dismemberment and being burned alive individually as well as in groups. Witnesses testified that Kodnani was at the scene of the crimes, handed out swords to Hindu rioters, exhorted them to attack Muslims and at one point fired a pistol''.''

Bajrang Dal The Bajrang Dal () is a Hindu nationalist militant organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It is a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar. The ideology of the organisation is based on Hindutva. It was ...

members Suresh Richard and Prakash Rathod told

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' (Hindi: Sensation) is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and a ...

's journalists on spy camera that Kodnani drove around Naroda all day, urging the mob to hunt Muslims down and kill them. Mobile phone records also placed her at the scene and showed her to be in regular communication with the top police officials, the Home Minister

Gordhan Zadaphia Gordhan Zadafia (born 20 June, 1954) is an Indian politician from Gujarat, India. He was a leader in Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) for 15 years before joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He served as the General Secretary of BJP in Ahmedabad ...

and the Chief Minister's office. The mobile phone records were buried by the police and brought to light by the

Nanavati-Mehta Commission The Nanavati-Mehta Commission is the commission of inquiry appointed by the government of Gujarat to probe the Godhra train burning incident of 27 February 2002. Its mandate was later enlarged to include the investigation of the 2002 Gujarat rio ...

in 2004. They were later investigated by

R. K. Raghavan Raghava Krishnaswami Raghavan is a former Indian police chief and diplomat. He was the director of the Central Bureau of Investigation from 4 January 1999 to 30 April 2001. He investigated high profile cases such as the Priyadarshini Mattoo mur ...

-led Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...

in 2008. Kodnani ignored notices for deposition by the SIT, which declared her an absconder in February 2009. She obtained an anticipatory bail from a sessions court, which was revoked by the

Gujarat High Court The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the ''Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960'' after the state of Gujarat split from Bombay State. The seat of the court is Ahmedabad. The prese ...

on 27 March 2009, leading to her subsequent arrest. She was tried in the Naroda Patiya massacre case and, on 31 August 2012, convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison. The court judgement called her the "kingpin of the Naroda Patiya massacre." Kodnani continued to maintain her innocence, claiming that she was at the Sola Civil Hospital at the time of the riots, meeting the relatives of Godhra victims. On 17 April 2013, the Gujarat government filed an appeal in the High Court seeking the death penalty for Kodnani but withdrew it on 14 May. In November 2013, she was granted an interim bail of three months for treatment of intestinal

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. On 30 July 2014, Gujarat High Court granted bail to her on grounds of ill health and suspended her prison sentence. On 20 April 2018, the High Court overturned the trial court's findings and acquitted Maya Kodnani, while upholding the conviction of Suresh Richard and Prakash Rathod.

Personal life

Maya Kodnani is married to Surendra Kodnani, who is a general physician.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kodnani, Maya Living people Sindhi people 2002 Gujarat riots Indian politicians convicted of crimes Women in Gujarat politics Rashtra Sevika Samiti members 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat 1956 births Gujarat MLAs 1998–2002 Gujarat MLAs 2002–2007 Gujarat MLAs 2007–2012 People acquitted of murder Indian people convicted of murder Hindu nationalists Hinduism-motivated violence in India