In the Gulbarg Society Massacre case, Sixty-nine persons, including former MP EhsanJafri, were burnt to death at the housing society in Ahmedabad during the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat.
In 2008, the apex court constituted a SIT to reinvestigate the nine cases and special designated courts were set up for trial.
Gulbarg Society case is the eighth of the nine cases the Supreme Court appointed SIThad probed and whose trial was monitored by the court.
As many as 338 witnesses were examined by the court during the trial that began in 2009, almost seven years after the gruesome massacre.
The special trial court of Ahmedabad on 17 june 2016 sentenced 11 persons to life imprisonment for murderfor arson and rioting and one person to 10 years in jail in the Gulbarg Society massacre case.
The court called the massacre as the “darkest day of civil society” and urged the government not to remit the sentence of the 11 persons.
However, the court ruled out the capital punishment as demanded by the prosecution lawyer, and held that the “convicts are not a menace to society and they can be reformed.”
The wife of former MP EhsanJafri is disappointed with the decision. She said that the accused are getting away with a “lighter sentence” despite the fact they had roasted people alive in Gulbarg Society.
On June 2, 2016, the court convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 personsin the case after a protracted trial that began in 2009. A former police inspector of the area and a local BJP leader were among the acquitted.The court dropped the conspiracy charge in the case as it did not find the attack on the Society as a “pre-planned conspiracy”.
Now, The NarodaGaam massacre case is the only remaining case of the 9 cases where the trial is under way.
BY: ANKIT RAJPUT
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