A special court on Tuesday awarded the death sentence to 11 of 31 persons convicted for the 2002 Godhra train carnage, leading to the death of 59 kar sevaks travelling in Coach S-6 of Sabarmati Express, while the remaining 20 were given life imprisonment.
The train was torched by a mob at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002.
Special judge P.R. Patel, describing the killings as the “rarest of rare” of crimes, said all 11 active conspirators deserved capital punishment, while their 20 associates spared the gallows will be jailed for life.
Speaking to reporters after the judge pronounced sentence inside Sabarmati Jail, special public prosecutor J.M. Panchal said the court held the accused guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder of 59 people. The prosecution sought death for all 31 convicted by the court, which had acquitted 63 of the 94 accused on trial for want of evidence. Among them was Maulavi Hussain Umarji, the alleged mastermind according to the prosecution.
The trial court gave the convicts three months’ time to appeal to a higher court.
Defence counsel I.M. Munshi said all those convicted would definitely file appeals in the high court, which under the law must confirm any death sentence before it can be implemented. He said he could not comment further till he got a copy of the court’s order.
Those given the death sentence are Bilal Ismail Abdul Majid Sujela alias Bilal Haji, Abdul Razak Mohammad Kurkur, Ramjani Binyamin Behra, Hasan Ahmed Charkha alias Lalu, Jabir Binyamin Behra, Mehboob Khalid Chanda, Salim alias Salman Yusuf Sattar Zarda, Siraj Mohammad Abdul Meda alias Bala, Irfan Abdul Majid Ganchi Kalandar alias Irfan Bhopo, Irfan Mhammad Hanifabdul Gani Pataliya and Mehbub Ahmed Yusuf Hasan alais Latiko.
Mr Panchal, meanwhile, when asked if the prosecution would appeal against the life sentences handed down to 20 convicts, said a decision would be taken by the special investigation team which probed the case after studying the order.