Ahmedabad: A special court here today awarded life sentence to another accused of the incident of burning of S 6 coach of Sabarmati Express train in Godhara of central Gujarat on February 27, 2002 a day after which state wide riots started in the western state that year.

59 people returning from Ayodhya were killed in the train burning incident.

Yakub Pataliya (62) was nabbed by a police from Vachala Odha locality of in his home-twon Godhara in Panchmahal district in January last year on the basis of a tip off. He was on a run for almost 16 years and had evaded arrest for a long time.

Special SIT court Judge S H Vora held him guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy and awarded life sentence.

Two of his brothers were also Charge-sheeted in the case one of whom Kadir Patalia who was arrested in 2015 had died in jail during trial while another brother Ayub, one of the earlier 31 convicts, was serving life imprisonment in the central jail of Vadodara.

. The special SIT court had in March 2011 convicted 31 accused (11 sentenced to death, 20 for lifer) and acquitted 63 others. Gujarat High Court had in October 2017 commuted the death sentences to life terms.

DeshGujarat