HC commutes death penalty for 11 in Godhra train fire case

ahmedabad — The Gujarat High Court on Monday commuted to life imprisonment the capital punishment of 11 convicted for burning a Sabarmati Express coach near the Godhra railway station in Gujarat in 2002 which killed 59 people.

The men had been handed the death penalty for the attack in Gujarat, governed at the time by then chief minister Narendra Modi, but a high court commuted the sentences, saying it was not a “terrorist act”.

The death of the 59 pilgrims on the train coming from Ayodhya had triggered massive communal riots across Gujarat, leading to deaths of about 2,500 people.

A total of 130 people were accused, of which 94 stood trial on charges of murder and conspiracy. Of these 63 were acquitted by a special court in 2011 which had pronounced life sentence for 20 and death sentence for 11 persons.

This was challenged in the Gujarat High Court, which heard the petition and kept its sentence reserved for two-and-a-half years.

A special bench of the Gujarat High Court on Monday refused to alter the verdict on 63 acquittals while the judges expressed regret for delay in pronouncing the judgment.

Those acquitted included prime accused Maulana Umarji, then president of Godhra municipality Mohammad Hussain Kalota, Mohammad Ansari and Nanumiya Chaudhary of Gangapur in Uttar Pradesh. The high court relied on the testimonies of injured witnesses, passengers, railway employees, Railway Protection Force personnel, two policemen from Godhra, the Gujarat railway police, experts from forensic laboratories and also the confessional statements.

“The death sentence for 11 has been changed to life imprisonment,” said J. M. Panchal, the special prosecutor in the attack case, but added that the Gujarat high court had rejected appeals by 20 men who received life terms from a lower court.

“There seems to be some discrepancies in the investigation.

We are partially satisfied as the court has upheld the incident as a planned conspiracy but sad that strictest punishment has not been given... We will go to the supreme court. Vijay Patel, lawyer representing Godhra train fire victims

Nothing can be done about the way it was investigated but even with this investigation if the court has found a conspiracy in the incident, we expected strictest punishment,” Vijay Patel, lawyer representing victims of Sabarmati Express burning, told reporters at the court.

“We are partially satisfied as the court has upheld the incident as a planned conspiracy but sad that strictest punishment has not been given... We will go to the Supreme Court,” Patel said.

The high court simultaneously passed strictures on the government, then ruled by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, stating that the state had failed to maintain law and order in the state and directed payment of a compensation of Rs1 million to the next of kin of the ‘kar sevaks’ who were killed.

Gujarat’s government was accused of tacitly supporting the revenge attacks, which survivors said could have been avoided if police had arrived on time. — IANS, Reuters, PTI