High Court awards life term to 11 in 2002 Godhra riot case

AHMEDABAD: Setting aside the trial court order acquitting the accused, the Gujarat high court on Thursday sentenced eleven persons to life imprisonment for the murder

AHMEDABAD: Setting aside the trial court order acquitting the accused, the Gujarat high court on Thursday sentenced eleven persons to life imprisonment for the murder of two persons during a 2002 post-Godhra riot at Meda Adraj village in Mehsana district.

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A division bench of justice Anant Dave and justice BN Karia awarded the accused “life imprisonment with remission”, allowing the state government to release them after they have served 14 years.

The HC also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on each of them and granted them ten weeks to surrender.

Last month, the high court had held 11 of the 27 accused guilty for murdering a father-daughter duo from the minority community at Meda Adraj.

A fast-track court in Mehsana on June 14, 2005, acquitted all the 27 accused for killing Kalu Miyan Saiyed and his daughter Hasina Bibi on March 3, 2002, in the aftermath of the train burning incident at Godhra in which 58 people died.

According to the prosecution, a mob of around 200 people surrounded the victims who had taken shelter in the house of Joitaram Prajapati and burnt them alive. There were six eye witnesses in the case.

The Gujarat government and the victims’ family had challenged the trial court’s verdict.