The Gujarat High Court (HC) on Thursday handed down life imprisonment to 11 convicts for burning two persons alive in Meda-Adraj Village of Mehsana District in the aftermath of the infamous Godhra train carnage in 2002.
A fast-track trial court had acquitted all 27 accused in the case in June 2005. However, the verdict of the lower court was challenged in Gujarat HC by the relatives of the victims. Following the hearing, the HC reserved the acquittal of the 11 accused and held them guilty of murder, arson and unlawful assembly and convicted ten of them under Sections 302 (murder) of IPC, among other Sections.
The judgment was delivered by a division Bench of Justices Anant Dave and BN Karia. Six eyewitnesses testified against the accused in a complaint filed mainly by the neighbour who had tried to save the father and daughter from the wrath of the crowd.
On February 27, 2002, S6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burned and as many as 59 people were killed near Godhra railway station. The incident was the main reason behind the Statewide communal riots in Gujarat. The incident in Meda-Adraj village occurred on March 3, 2003, around four days after the train carnage in Godhra.
A mob of over 200 people attacked the father and daughter. When the two took shelter in the house of a neighbour, the mob barged into the house and thrashed the neighbour for protecting them. The crowd later dragged the father and his daughter out into the compound and set them on fire.