Ahmadabad: The Gujarat government has refused permission to the Supreme Court-appointed SIT to file an appeal in a higher court seeking death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani in the Naroda Patiya riot case. 

This was decided on the basis of advocate general Kamal Trivedi's opinion that there was "no direct evidence" against her. 

Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal activist Babu Bajrangi, along with 30 others, were sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 post-Godhra Naroda Patiya riot case, in which 96 people were killed.