 "Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and one of the key petitioners in the case, reacts to the verdict. Photo: ANI")
A special SIT court in Ahmedabad on Thursday convicted 24 people in the Gulbarg Society massacre case. Among them, 11 have been convicted for murder by the court. Meanwhile, 36 others have been acquitted. The court will give out the sentence on June 6.
A sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel and former police inspector K G Erda are among those to have been acquitted by the court.
A sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel and former police inspector K G Erda are among those to have been acquitted by the court.
The verdict comes more than fourteen years after the ill-fated incident, which took place in minority-dominated Chamanpura area in Ahmedabad and claimed 69 lives, including that of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.
In its report, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had said that the massacre was a pre-planned conspiracy. However, the SIT court ruled against it.
The massacre case has been one of the nine most crucial cases that was being probed by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, which was constituted by 2009. While trials in the case were completed in September 2015, the case was restrained by SC from pronouncing a verdict. However, the special court was later directed by SC to pass the verdict by May 31.
The massacre case has been one of the nine most crucial cases that was being probed by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, which was constituted by 2009. While trials in the case were completed in September 2015, the case was restrained by SC from pronouncing a verdict. However, the special court was later directed by SC to pass the verdict by May 31.
Business Standard presents a case file of the massacre.
- The society, with 29 bungalows and 10 apartments, saw a mob of 20,000 gather and burn down most of the houses on February 28, 2002 — a day after a coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra railway station, killing 58 people.
- Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was a resident of the society and locals had gathered at his place to seek refuge. The leader had made frantic calls to the police and politicians for help, but was allegedly not paid heed to.
- The mob turned violent by noon and torched many houses. Jafri was dragged out of the house, hacked and burnt to death, says this NDTV report.
- Jafri's wife Zakia is the main petitioner in the case. She alleged that then Chief Minister Narendra Modi had an understanding with police officials, senior ministers and bureaucrats to induce the violence in the state.
- Overall, there are now 66 accused named by the Special Investigation Team in the case. Nine of the accused are still in prison, while others are out on bail. A total of close to 340 witnesses were examined during the trial which began in 2009, seven years after the massacre took place. Of the 66 charged, six died during the trial and nine have been in prison since 14 years.
- The victims have argued that the incident was pre-planned in order to target minority members living in the society.
- The defence, in its reply, stated that the mob turned violent only after Jafri had fired several rounds on them.
- Prime Minister and then Chief Minister of the state, Narendra Modi was also questioned by the SIT in 2010. The interrogation lasted for over nine hours. Later on, in 2012, the SIT gave a clean chit to Modi, stating that there was no prosecutable evidence against him.
- The Supreme Court had given a deadline to the SIT to deliver the verdict by May 31.
- Collectively, the riots in Gujarat in 2002 claimed over 1,000 lives and injured over 2,000 people. As per official numbers, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus died during the rioting period.
