Twenty-one persons were sentenced to life imprisonment, while 61 were acquitted, by a special court in Mehsana district on Monday in connection with killing of 11 persons during the 2002 communal riots in Visnagar town of Mehsana following the Godhra train carnage incident a decade ago.
Special court judge S C Srivastava also sentenced ex-police inspector M K Patel, to one year rigorous imprisonment for dereliction of duty while he was investigating the case. The court also imposed a fine ranging from Rs 8,000-10,000 on all those convicted.
A mob had killed 11 members of a single family, including two children and a 65-year-old woman, on March 1, 2002 at Dipda Darwaja area of Visnagar town in Mehsana district. The victims were hacked to death before being burnt by the mob.
During the pronouncement of judgement the court observed that there was no criminal conspiracy involved in the incident and held that the accused were not guilty of murder. It however, found 21 accused guilty of attempt to murder, rioting and wrongful assembly, and held police inspector Patel had failed in performing his duty as a public servant.
Of those acquitted, 10 have been absolved from all charges. While the rest have been given benefit of doubt which include former BJP MLA from Visnagar Prahlad Gosa. This is the fifth case for 2002 riots out of the nine cases that were further probed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on direction of the Supreme Court.
According to case details, initially charges were framed against 83 accused, including three women, but later the court acting on complaint of Mohammad Iqbal Baloch, arraigned Gosa and former Police Inspector, Visnagar town M K Patel, as additional accused in the case taking the total number to accused to 85.
However, one of the accused against whom charges were framed was found to be minor at the time of the crime following which the court ordered his trial by a juvenile court, while one of the accused died during pendency of trial.