Gulberg Society case: Court to see jail record of convicts on Monday

Ahmedabad

The argument on the quantum of punishment to the 24 convicts of the Gulberg Society massacre which had seen the killing of 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri here on Februay 28, 2002 a day after burning of a coach of Sabarmati express in Godhra, was completed today and the court ordered for the production of jail record of the convicts before it on June 13 (Monday) when it is likely to fix the actual date for pronouncement of the punishment.

The court of Special Judge P B Desai ordered the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to produce the jail record (the time spent in jail by each one of them) before it on Monday.

Meanwhile, during the final argument today SIT counsel R C Kodekar reiterated his earlier stance seeking capital punishment or at least life term for the 11 convicts held guilty of murder terming it a rarest of rare incident. He also countered the defense counsel’s argument that the incident was a reaction to an earlier action (Godhara incident) saying that there was no scope of revenge in the Indian culture.

The point of compensation to the victims also came up during the hearing today. The Defense counsels said that the convicts were mostly poor people who were unable to pay it. They also repeated their submission put forth earlier that the mob was provoked by firing by former MP Ehsan Jafri killing one and injuring 15.

As per yesterday’s order of the court the convicts were not physically produced today.

The court had held 24 of the total 66 accused guilty on June 2 while acquitted the remaining 36. Six had died during the trial. The court had in its order said that hearing on the quantum of punishment would be done from June 6. Of the 24 convicts 11 are held guilty under various charges including that of murder while one is guilty of attempt to murder and remaining 12 including VHP leader Atul Vaidya are guilty under lesser charges like rioting and unlawful assembling.

The court has dropped the charges of criminal conspiracy under section 120 B in the case.

The Gulberg Society case, which took place in Meghaninagar area of the city. 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 train station on February 27, 2002 during which 58 ‘karsevaks’ were killed.

– DeshGujarat