1 week Ago
Vadodara: Twenty-three years after the Sabarmati Express train carnage, three men, who were minors at the time, were sentenced to three years' imprisonment by the juvenile justice board in Godhra on Tuesday. The board also acquitted two others in the case. In total, six accused in the case were found to be minors.
One of them died, while five faced trial before the board. The convicts were 17 when the incident took place on February 27, 2002, in which 59 karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were charred to death at the Godhra railway station. The carnage triggered widespread communal riots in Gujarat.
The conviction also comes 14 years after 31 people were convicted for setting the train ablaze. Of these, 20 were sentenced to life imprisonment, while 11 received capital punishment in 2011. Later, the Gujarat High Court commuted the death sentence of the 11 to life imprisonment.
Defence lawyer Salman Charkha, who appeared for the accused along with lawyer Hemang Soni, told media persons that separate chargesheets were filed against the six in the case. He added that the court consolidated the six chargesheets and heard them together. Charkha said that the accused sought suspension of the conviction as they wanted to appeal against the judgment.
He confirmed that the application was granted, and the convicted accused will be filing an appeal. Two who were acquitted spent around five years in prison as well as juvenile homes. "All were charged under the Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA) ordinance along with other accused.
It was only when the trial commenced that it was established that they were minors. The court then separated them from others for the trial," said Soni. POTA was later dropped in the case.
Soni said that while the convicts are adults now, their names or any details cannot be disclosed under the provisions of the law as they were minors when accused in the case. He added that even as adults, they have to spend time in the safety home like juvenile accused and cannot be jailed..
