Ahmedabad, March 05: Special judge PR Patel, who on March 1 sent 11 convicts to gallows and 20 to jail for life in the Godhra train carnage case, explained on Friday in his 825-page judgment the logic behind upholding the conspiracy theory.
As per the order, the Sabarmati Express train massacre in which 59 kar sevaks were burnt alive would not have been possible without pre-planning. The court observed that Godhra is known for its history of communal riots and this was not the first incident where Hindus were burnt alive.
The judge said, “If there was no plan at all, it would not have been possible to gather Muslim persons with deadly weapons within five to six minutes and to reach near ‘A’ cabin on the railway tracks. If the petrol was not kept ready the previous night near Aman guest house, it would not have been possible to reach with the huge quantity of petrol within 5 to 10 minutes near S-6 coach. The target of the assailants was not all the passengers of this train or any other train or any other Hindus, but the kar sevaks.”
“Shouting slogans through loudspeakers from the nearby mosque suggest a motive and pre-plan,” he added.
—-Agencies