Ahmedabad, Jun 2: A special SIT court today convicted 24 and acquitted 36 as it pronounced its verdict in connection with a 2002 post-Godhra riots case of the Gulberg Society in which 69 persons including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri were killed.
Special Court Judge P B Desai delivered the judgement over eight months after the trial concluded on September 22, 2015. The Supreme Court, which was monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31.
Bipin Patel, who is a sitting BJP corporator from Asarva seat was acquitted by the court. He was also the corporator in 2002 when the massacre happened and won the election for a fourth consecutive term last year.
Of the 66 accused named by the SIT in the case, nine are behind bars for 14 years, while others are out on bail.
Last week, the court had turned down pleas moved by two accused--Narayan Tank and Babu Rathod--to conduct narco analysis and brain mapping tests on them to prove their innocence. The court maintained that it was not required when the verdict was imminent.
During the trial, riots victim's lawyer had argued that the massacre was a pre-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused to kill minority community members of the Gulberg 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 on them.
The Gulberg 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 the Sabarmati Express was burnt near the Godhra train station, where in 58 'karsevaks' were killed.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
Why they acquitted who killed innocent kids and women in train ..third rated Muslims ..we need death sentence for 5000 Muslims for instigating riots in gujarath..soola maklu madidre they honoured perfect manual antbe ...evidence sigada haage entire Jana na Udaisi bidbekuthu ..traitor community ...
Leaders are all out of the case. Some followers only get the imprisonment.
Not a convincing judgement.
OUR GREAT INDIAN JUDICIARY !
BJP corporator BipinPatel acquitted, true face of BJP.
Add new comment