Ahmedabad: The D-day arrived after 14 years, but left a bitter-sweet taste in the mouths of those who were expecting complete deliverance.
A special court on Thursday delivered its verdict in the gruesome massacre of 69 persons, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg Society on February 28, 2002, convicting 24 of the 66 accused, and acquitted 36, including sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel. Of the 24 found guilty, 11 were charged with murder, and 13, including VHP leader Atul Vaidya, convicted for lesser offences.
Special court judge P.B. Desai said there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case. The conspiracy charge was dropped against all. The quantum of sentence for those convicted in the case will be delivered on June 6.
Reacting to the judgment, Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, expressed disappointment, saying all of the accused should have been punished because they killed people and destroyed their property.
“I saw them doing so with my own eyes,” she said, adding that as a woman she did not have the courage to demand capital punishment but they should get stringent punishment.
