Godhra train burning case: High Court commutes death sentence of 11 to life

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Monday commuted death sentences to rigorous life imprisonment for 11 convicts in the 2002 Godhra train coach burning case and upheld the life sentence to 20 other convicts.

The court also observed that the state had failed to maintain law and order.

It directed the state to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the 59 victims, mostly kar sevaks, killed in the incident.

The court was hearing a clutch of appeals against a special SIT court order that sentenced 31 people in the train burning case. The SIT court had on March 1, 2011 convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 in the case. While 11 people were sentenced to death, 20 were given life in jail.

Coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express, in which 59 people, mostly 'kar sevaks' returning from Ayodhya were travelling, was burnt on February 27, 2002 at the Godhra station, triggering riots in the state.

Later, several appeals were filed in the High Court challenging the conviction, while the state government had questioned the acquittal of 63 people.

The court had convicted 31 people while accepting the prosecution's contention that there was a conspiracy behind the incident.

Last week, the Gujarat High Court had upheld the judgment of a metropolitan court that gave a clean chit to then chief minister Narendra Modi and 60 others in connection with the 2002 post-Godhra riots, and rejected Zakia Jafri’s allegations that the riots were part of a “larger conspiracy”.

The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) in its closure report had given a clean chit to Modi and others, including top officials and policemen, in the 2002 riots, citing lack of “prosecutable evidence” against them.