Agencies/Ahmedabad

 

 

Defence Lawyer I M Munshi (centre) speaks to journalists following the verdict on the 2002 Godhra train incident at a special court inside the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad yesterday

A court yesterday handed 11 death sentences and 20 life terms to people convicted of burning 59 Hindus alive in a train fire which triggered revenge attacks that killed 2,000 people.

Last week, 31 Muslims were found guilty on murder and conspiracy charges for causing the 2002 train fire in the western state of Gujarat, but 63 others were acquitted in a setback to the prosecution and police.

Fifty-nine Hindu pilgrims perished in the blaze at Godhra station, sparking an anti-Muslim backlash that resulted in some of India’s worst religious violence.

Hindu mobs hungry for revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in several cities during three days of bloodshed.

A total of 94 people, all Muslims, had stood trial at a court in Gujarat’s biggest city Ahmedabad, where they had been detained since 2002.

Responsibility for the fire has been the subject of fierce dispute between Hindu and Muslim communities, and the trial verdicts supported Hindu claims that it was a planned attack rather than a result of mob violence.

Previously, a national inquiry concluded that the fire was an accident and an investigation by news magazine Tehelka has also cast serious doubt on the neutrality of the police and the quality of their witnesses.

The judge felt the crimes fell “under the category of the rarest of the rare,” special public prosecutor J M Panchal told reporters outside the court, meaning the death sentence could be pronounced.

“There was an active role, as far as these people are concerned, in the conspiracy and also setting fire to the coach,” Panchal said.

Defence lawyer I M Munshi said all the men would appeal against the punishment in the Gujarat High Court. “It is very difficult to swallow,” he said.

Muslims have always denied setting the train ablaze on February 27, 2002, though an angry crowd had gathered at Godhra station to protest against Hindu passengers allegedly taunting Muslim porters and hawkers.

Tehelka has run a series of articles questioning the testimony of witnesses who corroborated the idea of a premeditated attack by Muslims.

In 2007, the investigative magazine filmed local Hindu activists confessing to making up their statements to police, while other prosecution witnesses have admitted to pressure to give false accounts of the violence.

The chief investigating policeman was also caught on a hidden camera making a series of anti-Muslim remarks, the magazine claims.

Critics of the prosecution theory that the train attack was premeditated point to the fact that the alleged mastermind, Maulvi Umarji, was acquitted last week.

Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi - a prominent member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - has also been accused of failing to stop the riots, and even of encouraging them.

Modi has always denied the allegations. A Supreme Court panel last month criticised him for “partisan” handling of the unrest, but found no evidence to justify criminal prosecution of him.

Extra police had been put on duty across Gujarat to prevent any outbreak of communal violence after the verdicts, but no unrest was reported.

Local authorities had also banned television stations and newspapers from broadcasting or printing the many graphic images taken during the riots to avoid stirring up religious tensions.

During the 2002 slaughter in Ahmedabad and elsewhere, witnesses said baying Hindu mobs surrounded and raped Muslim women, then poured kerosene down their throats and their children’s throats and threw lit matches at them.