India: Gujarat judge Jyotsana who convicted Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi gets 22 threat letters

On August 29, 2012, Yagnik delivered the Naroda Patiya case order, convicting 32 people, among them Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi.

Written by Parimal A Dabhi | Ahmedabad | Updated: May 11, 2015 10:28 am

Jyotsana Yagnik, the special judge who convicted and handed life terms to former Gujarat minister and BJP leader Maya Kodnani, former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi and 30 others in the 2002 massacre of 97 Muslims in Naroda Patiya, has received at least 22 threat letters and “blank phone calls” at her home since the August 2012 verdict.

Sixty-two-year-old Yagnik, who has since retired, has informed the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) about the threat letters and phone calls.

Her security cover has been scaled down to Y category from the Z-plus she was granted as Principal City Civil and Sessions Judge in Ahmedabad and she is said to have taken up the matter with the government.

Sources said Yagnik, who retired a few months after the Naroda Patiya massacre case verdict, has been receiving these letters — most are anonymous but one carries the letterhead of a private organisation.

In the letters, she has been threatened over the verdict in the massacre case, the sources said, adding that she has also been receiving “blank phone calls” at night.

Worried about her safety and that of her family, Yagnik informed the SIT. [. . .]

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/gujarat-judge-jyotsana-yagnik-who-convicted-kodnani-babu-bajrangi-gets-22-threat-letters/99/