Ahmedabad, February 22: In a long-due verdict, a special fast track court here on Tuesday found 31 accused guilty of involvement in the Godhra train burning case in which 59 people were burnt to death, triggering the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat.
The court found the 31 accused guilty of criminal conspiracy, while letting off 63 other accused.
The quantum of punishment will be announced on Friday, i.e. February 25.
Stringent security had been put in place ahead of the verdict.
The verdict was delivered in the confines of the Sabarmati Central Jail here, by Additional Sessions Judge PR Patel.
The verdict is first by any court in the Gujarat riots related cases. Nine different courts are trying the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, in which the Supreme Court had ordered a probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The fast track court had reserved its judgment in September last year.
A total of 104 people underwent trial in the case. Out of them, 86 are lodged inside the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad. Thirteen accused are out on bail and five others are juvenile accused.
According to the chargesheet filed in the case, 59 people were killed in the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express when an unidentified mob of around 900 to 1,000 people attacked it near Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002.
Most of the people killed in the attack were ‘kar sevaks’, or volunteers who were returning from Ayodhya.
The incident, which was labelled as a conspiracy, triggered state-wide communal violence, in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.
Initially, all the accused were facing charges under the stringent Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).
However, POTA charges were revoked by the Gujarat High Court in the Godhra case following the recommendations of the Central POTA Review Committee. The Supreme Court also rejected a petition challenging the constitutional validity of POTA (repeal) Act, 2004.
Similarly, many issues related to the case, where the questions of law have been raised by either prosecution or defence, are pending either in the Supreme Court or the High Court.
Now, the accused face criminal charges under the Indian Penal Code and other laws like Indian Railways Act.
The special trial court concluded the trial inside the Sabarmati Central Prison as the state government imposed statutory limitation on the mobility of the accused under provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The trial in the case had begun with the court framing charges against the accused in June 2009. During the trial, the court had examined 254 prosecution witnesses.
-Agencies