A special SIT court in Ahmedabad on Thursday convicted 24 of the 66 accused, including a VHP leader, in the 2002 post-Godhra Gulbarg Society massacre, which left 69 people, including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri, dead. Special Court Judge PB Desai acquitted 36 others, including sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel, and also dropped the conspiracy charge (120 B) against all the accused. Out of the 66 accused, six died during the 14-year long trial.
Congress corporator Meghsinh Chaudhari, and KG Erda, then police inspector of the area under which the Gulbarg Society was located, too were acquitted. While ruling out conspiracy in the sensational case, the court pronounced 11 out of the 24 convicts guilty of murder under section 302 of the IPC and remaining for lesser charges. The court would pronounce the quantum of sentence on June 6. The Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31. Of the 66 accused named by the SIT in the case, nine are already behind bars, while others are out on bail.
During the trial, victims’ lawyer had argued that the massacre was a pre-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused to kill minority community members of the Gulbarg Society. The defence had refuted the conspiracy theory of prosecution and claimed that the mob resorted to violence only after slain Congress MP Eshan Jafri fired several rounds at them.
The Gulbarg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT. The incident had taken place a day after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002 during which 58 ‘karsevaks’ were killed.
Almost 24 hours after the Godhra train carnage, around 9 am, a mob shouting slogans gathered outside the Gulbarg Society in the Muslim-dominated Chamanpura area in Ahmedabad. The Society comprised 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings.
Seeing large number of people shouting slogan outside the society, many residents of the society decided to assemble at Ehsan Jafri’s home.
By noon, the mob started turning violent and broke the boundary wall of the society and started to set houses on fire.