Babu Bajrangi

Babubhai Patel, known by his alias Babu Bajrangi,[1] is a leader of the Gujarat-wing of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist organization in India. He was a central figure in the organized pogroms directed at Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat violence.[2] He was sentenced to life term imprisonment by a special court for his role in the Naroda Patiya massacre in which ninety-seven Indian Muslims were murdered.[3]

Role in 2002 riots

In 2007, the Indian journal Tehelka published a hidden-camera interview with Bajrangi, in which Bajrangi speaks candidly of his role in the organized pogrom of Indian Muslims in the Naroda Patiya massacre, a particularly intense episode of brutality during the 2002 Gujarat riots:[4]

We didn't spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don't want to be cremated, they're afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don't care if I'm hanged ... just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay ... I will finish them off … let a few more of them die ... at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die.

In the video, Bajrangi claimed that after the killings, he called the home minister Gordhan Zadaphia and the VHP General Secretary Jaideep Patel, and told them about the killings. After a few hours, an FIR was lodged against him, and the police commissioner issued orders to shoot him at sight.[4] He was later arrested, and released on bail. He was out on bail at the time of the Tehelka interview. He also claimed Narendra Modi tried to subvert the judicial process.[5]

In 2012, he was convicted in the Naroda Patiya massacre case along with Maya Kodnani and thirty other accused. All thirty-two of the accused were found guilty of "murder, attempt to murder, conspiracy, spreading enmity and communal hatred and unlawful assembly".[3][6] On 31 August 2012, Bajrangi was sentenced to life imprisonment.[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "BJP MLA among 32 guilty in Naroda Paitya Massacre". Indian Express. 30 Aug 2012. Retrieved 29 Aug 2014.
  2. ↑ "Riot witness names MLA, says she led Naroda mob". Times of India. 30 Sep 2003. Retrieved 29 Aug 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Naroda Patiya massacre: Ex-minister Kodnani, 31 convicted". Worldsnap. 29 Aug 2012.
  4. 1 2 "'After Killing Them, I Felt Like Maharana Pratap'". Tehelka. 1 Sep 2007. Retrieved 29 Aug 2014.
  5. ↑ "Tehelka:: Free. Fair. Fearless". Archive.tehelka.com. 10 Aug 2007. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
  6. ↑ "Ex-BJP Minister among 32 convicted of Naroda-Patiya massacre". The Hindu. August 29, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Naroda Patiya riots: BJP MLA Maya Kodnani sentenced to 28 yrs in jail, Babu Bajrangi life". Indian Express. 31 Aug 2012. Retrieved 29 Aug 2014.
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