As you sow so you reap saying is haunting Maya Kodnani, a former minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet who was convicted for her involvement in one of the worst cases of communal rioting in Gujarat in 2002, is being given electric shock therapy at a government run hospital after being diagnosed with an acute depressive disorder.
Maya Kodnani (58), BJP ex-MLA from Gujarat convicted to 28 years of prison for involvement in 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre, was given electric shocks — considered the last line of treatment in major depressive disorder — on Thursday. Doctors said Kodnani has been showing severe suicidal tendencies and failed to respond to aggressive medicine treatment prompting them to consider giving electric shocks.
Doctors attending on Ms Kodnani said she has displayed suicidal tendencies and has not responded to aggressive medication.They said she is being administered the shock treatment under anaesthesia. The ECT is standard psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in patients.
“Maya Kodnani was given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) under anaesthesia. Her depression failed to improve despite aggressive treatment and she showed suicidal tendencies even under medical care. This prompted the team of doctors to consider giving her ECT,” said medical superintendent of Civil Hospital Dr MM Prabhakar.
Ms Kodnani has been in hospital since last one week. She was granted three months’ bail in November on medical grounds. The Gujarat High Court recently rejected her plea for a 180-day or six-month extension of bail, but the Supreme Court granted her interim relief by giving her a week’s bail that ends on Monday next.
The former minister was once known to be close to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the general elections, due by May. A legislator when she was arrested, she is the highest ranking person convicted in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
This was the first time Kodnani was given ECT. Doctors said that she would be given electric shocks twice a week. ECT is now considered an extreme line of treatment given under anaesthesia.