Author: Meghdoot Sharon
Publication: IBNLive.com
Date: Mar 1, 2011
URL: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/godhra-verdict-11-get-death-20-get-life-term/144727-3.html
A Sessions Court at the Sabarmati Central
Jail in Ahmedabad on Tuesday awarded death sentence to 11 people and life
term to 20 others. The sentence was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge
PR Patel, who had on February 22 convicted 31 people of criminal conspiracy
in the Sabarmati Express train burning case.
Terming the case as as "rarest of rare"
Justice Patel awarded capital punishment to Bilal Ismail Abdul Majid Sujela
alias Bilal Haji, Abdul Razak Mohammad Kurkur, Ramjani Binyamin Behra, Hasan
Ahmed Charkha alias Lalu, Jabir Binyamin Behra, Mehboob Khalid Chanda, Salim
alias Salman Yusuf Sattar Zarda, Siraj Mohammad Abdul Meda alias Bala, Irfan
Abdul Majid Ganchi Kalandar alias Irfan Bhopo, Irfan Mhammad Hanifabdul Gani
Pataliya and Mehbub Ahmed Yusuf Hasan alais Latiko.
"The court has sentenced 11 to death,
20 to life imprisonment. It has passed separate sentences for different offences
like looting, firing. The accused have been fined as well," said Rajendra
Tiwari, the lawyers for the victims killed in the train burning incident.
The sentence can be appealed in the High Court
within 90 days.
The prosecution had sought death sentence
for all the 31 convicts saying that it was a heinous act.
However, the advocate of riot victims Mukul
Sinha called the sentencing "shocking".
"This sentencing is shocking. There was
no iota of evidence to prove the conspiracy. I think there was no evidence
against any one of them. The death sentence to 11 is shocking, it's disproportionate
and unfair," Sinha told CNN-IBN.
The court had accepted the prosecution's contention
that there was a conspiracy behind the incident and convicted 31 under various
sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) like 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder)
and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
They were convicted under IPC section 147,
148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324,325,326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting
enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of
the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act and
Bombay Police Act.
The court had acquitted 63 others in the case
including the key conspirator Maulvi Hussain Umarji.
The S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was set
on fire on February 27, 2002, killing 59 kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya
in Uttar Pradesh. The train burning incident sparked off the Gujarat riots
in which over 1,000 people were killed. The trial conducted inside the Sabarmati
Central Jail began in June 2009.
