By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jaydeep Patel were Saturday sent to four-day police remand for their alleged involvement in a massacre during communal violence in 2002.
Kodnani and Patel spent the night in the office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the Old Secretariat in Gandhinagar after they surrendered Friday afternoon following the cancellation of their anticipatory bail by the Gujarat High Court.
The SIT, appointed by the Supreme Court to probe major cases of sectarian strife, had sought 14-day remand for questioning the two but the special metropolitan court allowed only four days of remand.
Immediately after the court order, the two were rushed into a waiting police van and taken back to Gandhinagar.
Kodnani, evading arrest since late January, finally submitted Friday her resignation as minister of state for higher education, women and child welfare.
Kodnani and Patel are alleged to have incited a mob that killed 100 people in Naroda village on the outskirts of the city Feb 28, 2002, a day after the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra, in which 59 people lost their lives.
Meanwhile, shopkeepers in Naroda area, represented by Kodnani in the assembly, downed shutters to protest the arrest of the former minister and the former VHP general secretary.
No violence was reported from any locality in Ahmedabad but security was tightened in some parts, a police official said.