The Ahmedabad City Sessions Court on Thursday granted anticipatory bail to BJP leader and state minister Maya Kodnani, and VHP leader Jaydeep Patel in connection with the 2002 riot cases.

Reacting to the order, Special Investigation Team chief R K Raghavan said they will take appropriate action. According to SIT sources, the team will challenge the order in the Gujarat High Court.

Judge A K Aswani, however, asked the two to submit their passports and co-operate with the Supreme Court-appointed SIT, which is reinvestigating the 10 most heinous riot cases of 2002.

Both Kodnani, the Minister of State for Child and Women Welfare and Higher Education, and Patel are accused in the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya riot cases. They have been evading arrest by the SIT. Kodnani is accused in both Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya massacres, while Patel is accused only in the latter.

The court granted bail for 90 days on the condition that they will not enter the Naroda area till the police file chargesheet in both cases. The court also put a condition that both leaders will have to get regular bail within 10 days of their arrest by the police.

Mitesh Amin was the defence lawyer, whereas Special Public Prosecutor Sudhir Brahmbhatt appeared before the court on behalf of the SIT.

The court conducted ‘a kind’ of in-camera proceedings of three bail applications. Babu Patel alias Bajrangi, one of the accused in the Naroda Patiya massacre case, attended the proceeding. The judge, however, did not allow the media to remain present in the courtroom.

Arguing in defence of Kodnani, Amin contended that she had got her statements recorded earlier before the city police. She had also co-operated in the investigation, he said. The defence said that although her name appeared in some of the complaint applications, her exact role in the case was not defined.

Incidentally, Kodnani has sought the bail on medical grounds, saying she is a heart patient and had undergone some tests last month.

The public prosecutor opposed the bail application, saying there were 15 witnesses in the Naroda Gam case and eight in the Naroda Patiya case against Kodnani. The prosecution also said that some of the witnesses have seen her at the rioting spots in a white saree and saffron band and firing from a ‘pistol-like weapon’.

In Patel’s application, the defence said that he was present at the Sola Civil Hospital and at Gota Crematorium when the riots were reported. The defence said his name cropped up in the case only in the applications filed by various riots victims from the relief camps, and not earlier.

The prosecution opposed Patel's bail plea, saying there were 24 witnesses against him and one witness had even seen him near Anand Cinema on the day of the riots. The prosecution argued that since the accused and the witnesses in the cases were living in the same area, the latter could be influenced.