Special Court Judgment On Gulberg Society Massacre On June 2

May 25, 2016 17:36

A special court will pass a judgment on June 2 about the Gulberg Society massacre which killed 69 people including ex Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri in Ahmedabad, during the Godhra Riots. The judgment was awaited since September 2015 following the conclusion of trial.

The 66 accused in the case which occurred on February 28, 2002 after the day Sabarmati Express train was burnt down, which killed 59 people. The trial started in 2009 and during the trial four of the accused died.

One of the accused, Bipin Patel, is currently a BJP corporator from Asarva seat who won the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Election last year in December, his fourth win on the BJP ticket. He was the BJP corporator in 2002 as well when the riots broke out.

The SIT had argued, ‘A day after train burning incident, a mob of around 20,000 to 22,000 had gathered at the Gulberg Society, a posh Muslim locality in Meghaninagar, and gutted the society in a killing spree in which 69 people died. The SIT has relied upon 24 witnesses implicating all the accused directly and their testimonies have been supported by medical evidences and other circumstances leading to the incident.’

‘Possession of lethal weapons, swords, lathis, kerosene and petrol proved the fact that most of the victims were burnt alive. It was argued during the trial that most of the dead bodies found were charred meaning that prior to their deaths they were brutally assaulted and then set ablaze. 39 bodies were found from the scene while missing were presumed to be dead, including Jafri,’ according to SIT.

Jafri’s widow Zakia had filed a case against the then chief minister Narendra Modi, now the prime minister. The SIT investigated the matter and gave a clean chit to Modi in 2012. Upholding the decision of SIT, metropolitan magistrate judged that there was no material evidence against the accused. After Zakia raised the case in the High court where the matter is still pending.

This case is one of the nine major rioting cases which were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) for further probe. Out of nine cases Naroda Patiya, Ode (two cases), Dipda Darwaja, Sardarpura, Prantij and Godhra train carnage cases have been decided by the courts and except Prantij riots case a large number of accused were convicted. The ninth case naroda gam is still under trial.

By Prajakt K.