A special court in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad on Monday convicted two accused and acquitted three in the 2002 Godhra train burning case, PTI reported. Farukh Bhana and Imran alias Sheru Batik were convicted on charges of conspiracy.
The five accused were arrested by different agencies between 2015 and 2016 and were put on trial by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team, reported The Indian Express. Hussain Suleman Mohan, Kasam Bhamedi and Faruk Dhantiya have been acquitted in the case.
In March 2011, a special SIT court convicted 31 people, out of whom 11 were awarded death sentences and 20 were given life imprisonment. The court also acquitted 63 people in the case.
In October 2017, the Gujarat High Court commuted the death sentences of the 11 convicts to life imprisonment and upheld the lower court’s order sentencing 20 other convicts in the case to life imprisonment. The High Court refused to reverse the acquittal of 63 accused in the case.
On February 27, 2002, coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire at Godhra station and 59 people, most of them pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, died. The incident triggered communal riots across Gujarat in which close to 1,000 people were killed.
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