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A special SIT court is likely to pronounce its verdict today in connection with a 2002 post-Godhra riots case of Gulbarg Society in which 69 persons including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri were killed.
Special Court Judge P B Desai will deliver the judgement over eight months after the trial concluded on September 22, 2015.
The Supreme Court, which is monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31. Special Court judge PB Desai will deliver the judgement eight months after the trial concluded on September 22, last year. Meanwhile, the city of Ahmedabad has been put on high alert ahead of the verdict.
The trial court had earlier given its verdict on August 29, 2012, convicting 32 accused including a minister in the Gujarat government. There are 66 accused named by the SIT in the case, of which nine are behind bars since 14 years, while others are out on bail. As many as 338 witnesses were examined in the case.
One of the accused, Bipin Patel is a sitting BJP corporator from Asarva seat. He was also the corporator in 2002 when the massacre happened and won the election for fourth consecutive term last year.
Last week, the court had turned down pleas moved by two accused— Narayan Tank and Babu Rathod— to conduct narco analysis and brain mapping tests on them to prove their innocence. The court maintained that it was not required when the verdict was imminent.
During the trial, riots victim's lawyer had argued that the massacre was a pre-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused to kill minority community members of the Gulbarg Society.
The defence had refuted the conspiracy theory of prosecution and claimed that the mob resorted to violence only after slain Congress MP Eshan Jafri fired several rounds on them.
The Gulbarg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court appointed SIT.
The incident had taken place a day after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra train station, where in 58 'karsevaks' were killed.
The Supreme Court had stayed the trial in major Gujarat cases on petitions filed by the National Human Rights Commission and the Citizens for Justice and Peace, who sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and transfer of the cases outside Gujarat.
The apex court bench on March 26, 2008, directed the Gujarat government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by R. K. Raghavan, a former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case.
