Godhra train burning case: Gujarat HC commuting death penalties may help BJP in polls
A decade and half after the heinous Godhra train burning episode, in which 59 people were charred to death when the Sabarmati Express went ablaze, the Gujarat High Court has heard a set of appeals against a lower court verdict. Gujarat HC has upheld the 63 acquittals, while commuting the death sentences of 11 convicts to life imprisonment.
Godhra train verdict: HC refuses to overturn lower court order acquitting alleged mastermind Maulvi Umarji. #Godhra
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) 9 October 2017
Breaking now on @IndiaToday : death sentence for 11 commuted to life in Godhra train burning.
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) 9 October 2017
Thirty-one persons were convicted of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy in 2011 by a special court in Gujarat in the February 27, 2002 Godhra train burning case. Those convicted - all Muslims - have always pleaded innocent of the crimes.
Death sentence of 11 convicts converted to life imprisonment in #Godhra case. @AnushaSoni23 joins us for more on this. #ITVideo pic.twitter.com/qHb1hPfjGZ
— India Today (@IndiaToday) 9 October 2017
The Gujarat HC also directed the government and the Indian Railways to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the families of those killed in the Godhra train burning incident, which triggered the massive 2002 communal riots in which over 1,000 Muslims were killed.
#NewsTodayKnow all about the Godhra train carnage.Live: https://t.co/MqP9608s82 pic.twitter.com/WvwcpfFuYi
— India Today (@IndiaToday) 9 October 2017
Sabarmati Express was returning from the site of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya, with kar sevaks, some of whom had taken part in the 1992 demolition. In 2011, a special court had convicted 31 in the case, sentencing 11 to death.
My view: train burning was a horrific unforgivable act but not pre planned. Conspiracy theory added later. HC verdict affirms this. #Godhra
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) 9 October 2017
The Gujarat HC verdict has been welcomed as a humane one by some, since it does away with capital punishment, but it has also been trashed by Hindu hardliners, such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad's Pravin Togadia, and those affiliated to the victims of Sabarmati Express burning.
Why not death by hanging to Jihadis who burnt 57 Hindus in Godhra with planed conspiracy? Why not justice to Ram Devotees in Gujarat?
— Dr Pravin Togadia (@DrPravinTogadia) 9 October 2017
Two important verdicts at the Courts todayBurning a train with people inside : OK Burning crackers in Delhi-NCR : Not OK#Godhra
— Anoop Chathoth (@anoopc) 9 October 2017
Togadia has sought capital punishment for the convicts, and has asked Gujarat government to appeal against the HC verdict in the Supreme Court.
It must be noted that while Gujarat HC has upheld the acquittals in the Sabarmati Express burning case, it rejected Zakia Jafri's petition for investigation and action against then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for the 2002 riots.
Given the approaching Gujarat Assembly elections, the Godhra train burning verdict might be welcomed by the state's Muslim minorities, and is sure to help the ruling BJP to ward off an increasingly thickening anti-incumbency in the air.