Ahmedabad/ AMN
A special SIT court in Ahmedabad has convicted 24 persons in 2002 post Godhra riots case of Gulberg society. Out of these, 11 have been charged for murder. 36 persons have been acquitted in the case.
69 persons including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri were killed in the incident. Special Court Judge P B Desai delivered the judgement over eight months after the trial concluded on September 22, 2015.
The defence had refuted the conspiracy theory and claimed that the mob resorted to violence only after slain Congress MP Eshan Jafri fired several rounds at them.
Supreme Court, which is monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31. 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.
The Gulberg Society massacre took place on February 28, 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a mob attacked Gulberg Society, a lower middle-class Muslim neighbourhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad, a day after a coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra railway station.
The Gulberg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots being probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.
The wife of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, Zakia, has called the verdict in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case “unfortunate” and said she will move a higher court for justice.
The frail 77-year-old has been pursuing the case since her husband and 68 others were brutally killed on February 28, 2002 in Ahmedabad’s sprawling complex with 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings.