The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday reserved the pronouncement of quantum of sentence of three convicts in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case, after they prayed for an opportunity to make fresh arguments. The division bench of Justices Harsha Devani and A S Supehia kept the matter for hearing on June 15 after the convicts made a submission that they were not properly represented, and needed their lawyers to argue afresh on the quantum of sentence.
P J Rajput, Rajkumar Chumal and Umesh Bharwad had been acquitted by the special SIT trial court along with 29 others in the verdict in 2012.
However, the high court, while hearing appeals, found these three guilty, while it upheld the acquittal of 29 others.
It had reserved the order on quantum of sentence for these three on Wednesday.
The trio are guilty of charges other than that under IPC section 302 (murder).