BJP downplays Naroda riot verdict

BJP today played down the court verdict in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case in Gujarat, saying the party respects the judicial system and abides by it unlike Congress, which has a culture of challenging court orders.

"We have full trust in the judicial system...To question the judicial verdict on the streets is a culture of the Congress and not of the BJP," party spokesperson Tarun Vijay said here.

BJP MLA and former minister in the Narendra Modi government Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi were among 32 people convicted by a special court today in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case in which 97 people belonging to the minority community were killed.

Additional principal judge Jyotsna Yagnik held Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi guilty under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of IPC in the post-Godhra riots case, while acquitting 29 others.

The massacre had taken place a day after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002.