Godhra Train Burning: Two Accused Handed Life Imprisonment By Gujarat Court, Eight Still Absconding

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) court in Ahmedabad sentenced two accused to life imprisonment in connection with the 2002 Godhra train carnage where fifty-nine kar-sevaks were burnt to death.

Two coaches of the Sabarmati Express were set on fire at Godhra on 27 February 2002 which resulted in the outbreak of severe communal riots in the state of Gujarat. Three other co-accused, however, were acquitted by the same SIT Court which was set up at the Sabarmati Central Jail following the apprehension of the five accused in 2015-16. Eight other accused in the case are said to be absconding.

In an earlier pronouncement, the SIT Court had convicted thirty-one people in relation to the Godhra train carnage of whom eleven had been awarded the death sentence while the remaining twenty were given sentences of life imprisonment. The High Court of Gujarat had later commuted the sentences of the eleven people who had been given the capital punishment to life imprisonment while upholding the sentences of the other twenty accused.