Ahmedabad:

Declining to treat the Gulberg Society case pertaining to 2002 Gujarat riots as a ‘rarest of rare’ incident, a special court here today did not pronounce capital punishment for its convicts and awarded life sentence to the 11 convicts held guilty for murder during the massacre which had seen the killing of 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri on Februay 28, 2002 a day after burning of a coach of Sabarmati express in Godhra.

The court sentenced 10 years of jail term to the sole convict held guilty of attempt to murder and seven years each to the remaining 12 including the VHP leader Atul Vaidya.

The court of Special Judge P B Desai had completed the hearing on quantum of punishment on June 10 and pronounced it today amid tight security in and around the court premises. All the accused were present in the court.

SIT counsel R C Kodekar later said that an appeal would be filed against the lower court order in the High Court. He said that it was henious crime where neighbours had stabbed neighbours and the court in its observation has also called the fateful day as black day. But as the punishment is somewhat linient an appeal would be filed in the higher court.

One of the defence counsel Abhay Bhardwaj said that the court has completely rejected the allegtions of prosecution.

Meanwhile Mrs Jakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri, expressed dissatisfaction over the verdict and said that she would again start her legal battle against it. ‘Every convict should have been punished. They left half of them and now only 11 have got lifer. Its not fair. I would fight it,’ She said.

Mr. Kodekar during course of argument had sought capital punishment or at least life term for the 11 convicts held guilty of murder terming it a rarest of rare incident. The defense on the other hand had sought leniency from the court on two main grounds; the incident being allegedly provoked by firing by Late Mr. Jafri in which one person died and 15 injured and the convicts not being professional criminals.

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 conducted a separate hearing on the quantum of punishment 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 had 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.

The list of Convicts and maximum punishment to them is as following –

Accused of Murder- (11) – Life sentence

Kailash Lalchand Dhobi (not present), Yogendrasinh alias Lalo Mohansinh Shekhawat, Jayeshkumar alias Gabbar Madanlal Jinger, Krishnakumar alias Krishna Jayeshkumar Ramjibhai Parmar, Raju alias Mamo Ramavtar Tiwary, Naran Sitaram Tank, Lakhansingh alias Lakhiyo Chudasama, Bharat alias Bharat Taili, Bharat Laxmansinh Goud, Dinesh Prbhudas Sharma,

Attempt to Murder (1)- 10 years

Mangilal Dhupchand Jain

Others under minor charges like rioting, unlawful assembling (12)- 7 years each

Dilip alias Kalu Chaturbhai Parmar, Sandip alias Sonu Mehra, Mukesh Pukhraj Sankhla, Ambesh Kantilal Jinger, Prakash alias Kali Khengarji Padhiyar, Manish Prabhulal Jain, Dharmesh Prahladbhai Shukla, Kapil Devnarayan alias Munnabhai Mishra, Suresh alias Kali Dahyabhai Dhobi, Atul Indravadan Vaidya (VHP leader), Babu Hastimal Marwadi, Surendrasinh alias Vakil Digvijaysinh Chauhan.

Some of the salient features regarding the chronology of the event –

February 2002 – The incident took place. Only 39 bodies found.

November 2007: The Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, seeking the court’s directive to the police to register a complaint against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others for their alleged involvement in the massacre.

March 2008: The Apex Court directed the state government to set up a special investigation team (SIT) under former CBI Director R K Raghvan for a further probe into various riots cases including Gulberg Society and Naroda Patia massacres.

May 2010 – The Supreme Court put a stay on delivering the judgement of the case by the trial court.

February 2012: The SIT in a “summary closure report” gives clean chit to Mr. Modi saying there was no “prosecutable evidence” against him.

December 2013: Ahmedabad Metropolitan court rejects the petition of Zakia Jafri against the closure report of the Special Investigation Team giving a clean chit to Mr. Modi.

November 2014: The day to day hearing in the case, resumed following the Supreme Court’s directions to conclude it in three months.

February 2016 : The Supreme courts lifts almost 6 year old ban on pronouncement of the verdict by the trial court.

June 2, 2016: Special court gives verdict

June 10, 2016: Hearing on quantum of punishment completed

June 17, 2016- Punishment pronounced.