The Gujarat High Court on September 5 issued notices to all 27 convicts of the Ode massacre cases on the state government’s pleas seeking enhancement of their punishment from life imprisonment to death penalty.
This move of the state government to seek death penalty for the Ode massacre convicts, who all happen to be Patels, might be the outcome of Keshubhai Patel’s bid to mobilise the Patel community against Narendra Modi in the upcoming Assembly elections. However, the question remains whether the state government would also seek death penalty for the convicts of Sardarpura, Deepda Darwaza and Naroda Patiya massacres, including the high-profile Hindutva leaders like Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi. The question also remains whether the state government would move the court to punish other BJP leaders like Jaydeep Patel and Gordhan Zadaphia, who somehow or the other have escaped conviction by the court, for their alleged role in the Gujarat pogrom.
Abu Yousuf
Gaya, Bihar