The 2002 Godhra train burning case convicts get relaxation to `life in prison’. 11 convicts were given a death sentence by the special trial court on March 1, 2011. The Gujarat High Court on Monday made the verdict on an appeal by the 31 convicts, in which 11 were sentenced to death and 20 were given life in prison.
Now the Gujarat High Court let the 31 convicts to serve out their lives in prison charging them with attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy in the Godhra train burning case.
In 2011, the Gujarat HC acquitted 63 accused, who included Maulana Hussain Umarji, dubbed by the Gujarat police as the ‘mastermind’ of the carnage. Out of over 130 accused persons, 94 could be put on trial before the trial court.
The Gujarat government and the special investigation team that investigate the incident had sought confirmation from the Gujarat high court to the death sentence given to 11 by the trial court. The government also demanded maximum punishment for the 20 people who were given life imprisonment.
In February 2002, 59 people, most of them ‘kar sevaks‘, Hindu devotees returning from Ayodhya, died after a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire at the Godhra station, around 130 km from Ahmedabad.
The Muslims who were tried have always denied setting the train ablaze on February 27, 2002. The train was returning with passengers from the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya that had been demolished by lakhs of right-wing workers and volunteers in 1992. The special court, in 2011, in Gujarat ruled that the accused had conspired to torch the train.
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