Godhra case: Gujarat HC commutes death sentence on 11 to life imprisonment

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KalingaTV News Network

Godhra Train burnig CaseAhmedabad:  The Gujarat High Court on Monday commuted the death sentence of 11 convicts in the case of the burning of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra in 2002, which triggered massive communal riots across the state, to life imprisonment.

A division bench of Justices Anant S Dave and G R Udhwani of the High Court pronounced the judgement on appeals filed by the convicts as well as the prosecuting agency.

The High Court also upheld the life sentence awarded by the special SIT court to 20 others in the case. All 31 convicts in the case have now been sentenced to life imprisonment.

On March 1, 2011, the special SIT court had convicted 31 persons. The trial court had sentenced 11 persons to death and 20 others to life imprisonment, while acquitting 63 persons for setting ablaze a coach of the train near Godhra railway station.

The High Court also ordered the state government and the railways to pay a compensation of 10 lakh rupees to the kin of those killed in the train burning incident.

On February 27, 2002, as many as 59 passengers, most of them ‘kar sevaks’ returning from Ayodhya, were killed after coach S 6 of the Sabarmati Express was set afire near Godhra station.

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