diff --git a/src/opr/impl/dnn/batch_norm.cpp b/src/opr/impl/dnn/batch_norm.cpp
index f85a994a3aa593016a82fa0ab6a84a7e6a4f2428..a8daf566670f66709fd46d02e26f682ad03c8ab6 100644
--- a/src/opr/impl/dnn/batch_norm.cpp
+++ b/src/opr/impl/dnn/batch_norm.cpp
@@ -232,16 +232,18 @@ void BatchNormForward::mem_plan_fwd_in2out_writable() {
 
 #ifdef MGB_ENABLE_GRAD
 MGB_IMPL_OPR_GRAD(BatchNormForward) {
-    mgb_assert(wrt_idx < 5);
-    if (wrt_idx < 3) {
-        SymbolVarArray grad = BatchNormBackward::make(
+    mgb_assert(opr.param().fwd_mode == BatchNorm::Param::FwdMode::TRAINING,
+        "batch norm could only take grad in training mode");
+    mgb_assert(wrt_idx < 5, "wrt_idx %zu is out of range", wrt_idx);
+    VarNodeArray ret(opr.input().size(), nullptr);
+    SymbolVarArray grad = BatchNormBackward::make(
             opr.input(0), out_grad[4],
             opr.output(2), opr.output(3),
             opr.input(1), opr.param());
-        return grad[(wrt_idx + 2) % 3].node();
-    } else {
-        return nullptr;
+    for (size_t i = 0; i < 3; ++ i) {
+        ret[i] = grad[(i + 2) % 3].node();
     }
+    return ret;
 }
 #endif