Babu Bajrangi


Babubhai Patel, known by his alias Babu Bajrangi, was a leader of the Gujarat-wing of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist organization in India. He was a central figure during the 2002 Gujarat violence. He was sentenced to life term imprisonment by a special court for his role in masterminding the Naroda Patiya massacre in which 97 Muslims were murdered including 36 women, 26 men and 35 children. The Supreme Court of India granted him bail on medical grounds in March 2019.

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 violence against Indian Muslims in the Naroda Patiya massacre, a particularly intense episode of brutality during the 2002 Gujarat riots:
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. 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 changed judges three times to ensure that he was released from jail, as the first two judges wanted to sentence Bajrangi to hanging for his heinous crimes.
Babu Bajrangi also claimed, he & his rioters slit the womb and wrenched the foetus out of a women's belly and impaled it on Trishul.
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".
On 31 August 2012, Bajrangi was sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, he continues to be out of jail on bail. As of 2016, Bajrangi had been granted temporary bail 14 times on the pretext of his wife's and his own poor health. After claiming to have developed partial blindness and deafness, Bajrangi was given an attendant in Sabarmati Central Jail.
On 7 March 2019, the Supreme Court of India also granted bail to Babu Bajrangi, after the Gujarat government informed the Supreme Court, in reply to a bail plea that Bajrangi had filed last year, that he was “in bad shape”. The state told the court that Bajrangi has allegedly suffered complete vision loss, besides various other ailments.