Five years after 59 kar sevaks were charred to death in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express in Godhra, the case remains stuck with little headway in sight.
Five years after Godhra riots
GODHRA: Five years after 59 kar sevaks were charred to death in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express in Godhra, the case remains stuck with little headway in sight.
Justice looks a distant possibility after the Supreme Court order stayed its trial in 2004.
The investigations, meanwhile, seem unending. Besides the main chargesheet, sixteen supplementary chargesheets have been filed till now.
“Whenever a new theory emerges regarding this case, police record fresh statements of the accused. They have tried to create evidence against the accused after arresting them,” alleged a son of the main accused Saeed Umarjee.
A worried Nafisa Ansari keeps on repeating how her two sons used to work in their own bakery, and how cops cracked down upon them on the fateful day.
A primary observation by the central POTA Review Committee had exonerated the accused from terrorism charges and had proposed to the state government to revoke POTA in the case, in October 2004.
Striving hard to prove the accused as being part of a greater terrorist conspiracy, the prosecution ignored the proposal to free them from POTA charges. This has left more than 200 languishing in prison for the past five years.
However, a recent SC order allowing them to file for bail directly in the apex court has come as relief for them. The relatives wish the trial would begin soon so that justice can be delivered. “We want the judgment to come soon, not only because the innocents will be free, but also because those who lost their lives will get justice,” said a local leader Abdurrazaq Umarjee.
The Railway’s decision to constitute a separate probe panel under Justice UC Banerjee was quashed by the Gujarat HC in 2006, discarding its finding that the fire was “accidental”.
“The Nanavati-Shah commission has also remained fair and provided an opportunity to survivors, officials and witnesses to depose,” said the Jan Sangharsh Manch lawyer Mukul Sinha. He fears justice will take a long time.
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