Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court, on October 9, commuted the death sentence of 11 convicts to life imprisonment in the Godhra train carnage case.
The court upheld conviction of 20 who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a trial court. A total of 31 convicts now got life imprisonment.
The case dealt with the torching of the Sabamati Express train on February 27, 2002. As many as 59 pilgrims traveling by the coach S6 were charred to death at Godhra railway station, some 130 km southeast of Ahmedabad, commercial capital of Gujarat where the High Court is located.
The pilgrims were “kar sevak” or volunteers returning from Ayodhya, a town in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and 1,220 km northeast of Godhra.
The incident triggered massive sectarian riots that killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, across Gujarat, report agencies.
The High Court pronounced the verdict on a set of appeals that challenged the conviction and acquittals in the case. The High Court division bench of Justices A S Dave and G R Udhwani had completed the hearings more than two years ago.
The Supreme Court had appointed Special Investigation Team challenging acquittals of 63 accused, including the main accused Maulana Umarji.
In 2011, the trial court had found 31 people guilty of the barbaric incident and awarded death sentence to 11 persons while the rest were sentenced to life imprisonment. The court, however, had acquitted 63 others.
The High Court refused to change a lower court acquittal of 63 people accused in the case.