Court holds 31 guilty of planning to burn train and acquits 63 of 94 arrested.
It was a conspiracy, but majority of those arrested and described by the police as ‘conspirators’ have been acquitted by a special court trying the Godhra train burning case, here on Tuesday. Attack on coach S-6 of Sabarmati Express at Godhra station on February 27, 2002, leading to death of 59 Ram Sevaks returning from
Ayodhya was a pre-planned conspiracy. A special court trying the case of 9-year-old carnage, that led to widespread rioting in Gujarat for weeks killing over 2,000 people and displacing lakhs, upheld this argument of the prosecution here on Tuesday and convicted 31 accused.
However, it let off 63 of the 94 persons which were arrested for the conspiracy and have been imprisoned — a whopping 67% of those accused. The most important acquittal was that of Maulana Umarji who was dubbed as one of the key conspirators and also that of Mohammed Kalota, then president of Godhra Municipality.
Judge PR Patel delivered an 850-page judgment inside a heavily fortified Sabarmati Central Jail, but the quantum of sentence will be pronounced on February 25.
Except Umarji, two other key accused Razak Kurkur and Haji Billa have been convicted. Prosecution advocate JM Panchal told reporters outside the jail premises, “The conspiracy theory has been accepted by the court. On February 25, there will be a hearing on the point of sentence, and after that quantum of punishment will be pronounced.” While Panchal refused to comment whether they will appeal or not, defence lawyer AM Saiyed categorically stated that they will appeal against the judgment in Gujarat High Court.
The delivery of verdict in the Godhra case concludes one of the most central controversies in recent times. The Sabarmati train carnage was followed by massive communal riots across Gujarat, which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people. After being lodged inside the Sabarmati jail for the past nine years, the acquitted were released within hours and transported under police protection all the way to their respective homes in Godhra.
Soon after the verdict was on air, the war of words between the political parties and activists kicked off in earnest. BJP spokesman Tarun Vijay welcoming the verdict said, “It exposed the nefarious designs” of the UPA government which “tried to cover up” the entire episode, with reference to the UC Banerjee Committee set up by former railway minister Lalu Prasad. The report rejected the conspiracy theory and had concluded that the fire was accidental.
“It was a sham report at the time of elections,” another BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad said. The Congress on the other hand refused to comment on the verdict, maintaining that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is responsible for triggering the post-Godhra communal riots.
“The verdict has also vindicated the Congress which has always stated that the guilty should be punished. However, the verdict also reveals that lots of innocent people were kept behind bars of nine long years,” Congress general secretary in-charge of Gujarat BK Hariprasad said.
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