A special SIT court that convicted 24 people in the Gulberg Society massacre case, adjourned hearing on the pronouncement of the quantum of punishment to June 9, much to the chagrin of those who suffered. The prosecution had demanded either capital punishment or life imprisonment for the convicts.
Special Court judge PB Desai had convicted 24 of the 66 accused including a VHP leader in charges of the 2002 post-Godhra Gulberg society massacre on June 2. He acquitted 36 others including sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel, also dropping conspiracy charge against all the accused. Of those convicted, 11 have been charged with murder while the other 13 are sentenced for lesser offences. The special court said there was no evidence of criminal conspiracy. Public prosecutor RC Kodekar told the court that the convicts were deserving of maximum punishment, going by Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. "The manner of crime was cruel, barbaric, and inhuman. Victims' bodies were roasted alive, in the crime for which there was no provocation, much less in case of women and children who were defenceless," he said.
The trial, one of the nine major cases probed by the SIT, was relating to a mob attack launched on February 28, 2002, on a predominantly Muslim society of 29 bungalows, and 10 apartments. Amongst those killed in the violence included Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. Charred remains of 35 people, including Jafri’s, were recovered and 31 people were missing. They were presumed dead after seven years. The attack came in retaliation to the burning down of the Sabarmati Express returning from Ayodhya, near Godhra.
Unsatisfied with the Gujarat Police investigation that saw 39 people chargesheeted, Jafri's wife Zakia had taken the Supreme Court's approval for an investigation by a SIT, lead by former CBI chief RK Raghavan. The team arrested 25 more people, filed eight charge sheets and submitted its report on March 15, 2012.
