Gulbarg massacre case: Gujarat court sentences 11 to lifetime imprisonment

Ahmedabad: A special trial court on Friday sentenced 11 of the 24 convicted to lifetime imprisonment in connection to the Gulbarg massacre case in which 69 people, including a former parliamentarian, were killed in 2002. The 11 were convicted for murder charges.

While 12 others were sentenced to seven years of imprisonment after being held guilty of murder along with other charges like unlawful assembly, rioting, arson, trespass, inciting communal hatred, damaging place of worship, the court sentenced Mangilal Jain to 10 years who was convicted for attempt to murder.

Calling it an unfortunate event that took place in those “dark days”, judge P.B. Desai said that he did not give capital punishment to the 11 convicted after looking into their conduct while on bail and their criminal records.

“I am sentencing 11 convicted to imprisonment which according to Section 302 means imprisonment till death,” the judge said to a jam-packed court with tight security arrangements.

He said that there was scope for rehabilitation and reforms for the convicted. Judge Desai said that while the government had the power to reconsider life-time imprisonment for the 11 convicted, he had recommended the state not to do so.

On 2 June, the trial court had convicted 24 of the 66 accused in the Gulbarg society massacre. Out of the 66 accused, six died during trial.

Those acquitted include sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator Bipin Patel, former police inspector K.G. Erda and former Congress corporator Meghsinh Chaudhari.

The prosecution had during the trial demanded either capital punishment or life imprisonment for the convicts. Advocate S.M. Vora, appearing for the victims, had demanded “exemplary punishment” for the 24 persons found guilty.

Defence lawyer Abhay Bhardwaj had appealed for a second chance for the convicts, on the grounds of a clean criminal record. Bhardwaj also pleaded that eight of the witnesses could not identify the convicts, demanding minimum punishment.

A large mob attacked the predominantly Muslim-populated Gulbarg society on 28 February 2002, a day after coaches of the Sabarmati Express train were burnt at Godhra station leaving 59 people dead.

The case was investigated by a special investigation team (SIT) formed by the Supreme Court to reinvestigate the nine cases of riots that took place in Gujarat in 2002. The SIT trial concluded on 22 September 2015.

Special prosecutor R.C. Kodekar and SIT chairman R.K. Raghavan said that they would demand maximum punishment for the convicts.

SIT has so far sought death penalty in case of convictions in six different cases of the 2002 riots. In only one case—the Godhra train burning case—did the special court award capital punishment to 11 convicts.

While pronouncing the judgement on 2 June, the court had said there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case and dropped charges under Section 120-B of the IPC.

(With inputs by Neil Rodricks)