Nine years after the Godhra train carnage led to the deaths of 59 kar sevaks, triggering anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in which thousands were killed, a special court here held 31 persons guilty of conspiracy over the train burning. Sixty-three others, including prime accused Maulvi Hussain Umarji, were acquitted by special judge P.R. Patel for lack of adequate evidence. The sentencing of the 31 convicts will be done on Friday.
Hours after the verdict, all the 63 acquitted were released from Sabarmati Central Jail, after spending nine years behind bars. Smiling and waving, some with tears in their eyes, they boarded a bus to begin the journey home to Godhra on Tuesday evening with a police escort.
The court’s acceptance of the conspiracy theory vindicates the stand of the state government headed by chief minister Narendra Modi, which had vehemently argued that the Godhra train burning was a “pre-planned conspiracy meant to kill kar sevaks and thus create communal tensions in the state.”
This, however, contradicts the findings of the U.C. Banerjee inquiry commission set up by the railway ministry which said the burning of Coach S-6 of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002 was an accident.
The verdict was delivered in a courtroom inside the high-security Sabarmati Jail, where the majority of the 94 accused in the case have been lodged. The trial began in June 2009 and was completed in September 2010.
The 31 accused were convicted under various sections of the IPC, including 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 436 (arson and fire).
The conspiracy theory stands mainly on confessions by the accused and witnesses under Section 164 CrPC. “The motive of conspiracy was to set the train on fire. The verdict is based on oral evidence and eyewitness accounts,” special public prosecutor J.M. Panchal said outside the court.
“Petrol was brought and the train was made to stop. Electricity was then cut, a huge quantity of petrol was poured, and thereafter (Coach S-6) was set on fire,” he said replying to questions.
On the acquittal of Maulvi Umarji, named as prime conspirator, Mr Panchal said the court was not convinced with the evidence against him and did not find it fit enough to convict.