A court here sentenced 18 persons to life imprisonment and five others to seven years in jail on Thursday, for burning alive 23 Muslims at Ode village in the district during the post-Godhra riots of early 2002, holding the the offence did not fall in the 'rarest of rare' category.
These 23 had been declared guilty on Monday. They escaped the death penalty as district judge Poonam Singh held since none of them had criminal antecedents, they did not merit the ultimate penalty. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,800 on each of those sentenced to life imprisonment and Rs 3,800 on those handed a lesser jail term.