Godhra train carnage accused arrested

In a major breakthrough in the infamous Godhra train carnage case, the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat police nabbed absconding accused Kasim Ibrahim Bhameri on Monday.  54-year-old Bhameri, was one of the accused in setting S6 coach of Sabarmati Express on fire on February 27, 2002 in which, 59 passengers charred to death. The burning of S6 coach was the root cause to iniquitous Gujarat riots in which over 2000 people killed.

Sources in the Gujarat police said that the ATS personnel nabbed one of the most wanted accused, who was absconding since the past 13 years on the basis of intelligence inputs."Kasim was arrested from Dahod Railway Station, when he was coming back to his hometown Godhra from Madhya Pradesh.  According to the police, he went to the neighboring State to participate in some religious function," said RK Amin, PSI of Ahmedabad ATS.  

The ATS team has given the charge of the resident of Juna Kakor Road in Godhra town to Gandhinagar based Special Investigation Team (SIT) to interrogate him. The SIT will interrogate about who all helped him and gave shelter to the accused for almost 13 years.It is worth mentioning that in a little less than a week's time, Gujarat police got success in nabbing second accused in Godhra Train arson case. On last Wednesday (July 22), local Crime Branch (lCB) personnel of Godhra had arrested Kadir Abdul Gani Paradia from Jambua district of Madhya Pradesh. He too has been handed over to SIT for further investigation in the case.

Already a special court had pronounced the death penalty for 11 convicted in the Godhra train burning case and handed down life sentence to 20 others. Special judge remarked the case as 'rarest of rare' while pronouncing death penalty to 11 out of 31 convicted in the case.