31 awarded life sentence, 42 acquitted in 2002 Sardarpura riot case

A special court on Wednesday sentenced 31 people to life imprisonment for rioting on February 28, 2002, in which 33 Muslims were burnt alive in Gujarat’s Sardarpura village.

Of the 73 accused, the court acquitted 42 — 11 were freed for lack of evidence and 31 got the benefit of doubt. The village was the centre of communal riots that broke out after the Godhra incident (a sleeper coach carrying kar sevaks was set on fire, allegedly by Muslims, killing 59).

Principal district and sessions judge SC Srivastava directed the 31 convicts to deposit Rs50,000 each. The money will be paid as compensation to victims’ families.

RB Sreekumar, former state DGP, termed the verdict historic. "Never before in the history of any communal riots trial have so many people been sentenced," he said. "It did not happen in the 1984 riots trial [hundreds of Sikhs were killed after Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards], or in the 1992 Mumbai riots trial or the Bhagalpur or the Best Bakery cases.”

This is the first riot case (after the Godhra incident) that was investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. “It is a very satisfying verdict; I am happy with it," RK Raghavan, the SIT chairman, said.

"It is the result of hard work put in by my officers. I don't know if it is the biggest-ever conviction in a riot case, but 31 people sentenced to life imprisonment is a sizable number."