Supreme Court on Tuesday, granted bail to over 14 convicts in the 2002 Gujarat riots where 33 people were massacred in Sardarpura
New Delhi| A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde has granted bail to all 14 convicts in the 2002 Gujarat Riots case in which 33 Muslims were burnt alive in 2002. The apex court told the convicts to do social and spiritual services but ruled that they cannot stay in Gujarat.
The convicts will be divides into two groups. One would be sent to Madhya Pradesh’s Indore and the second, to Jabalpur 500 km away.
The convicts will have to mandatorily do six hours of community service daily which will be ensured by district legal authorities in Indore and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. The state legal services authority will also file a compliance report and regularly report on the convict’s conduct.
SC also tasked the state administration to find the convicts work to earn a livelihood.
The bench was Tuesday hearing two bail applications filed by the convicts. The main application said the sentencing of six of the 14 accused was based on the account of one eyewitness which was by convict Prahladbhai Jagabhai Patel. According to the other application, one or two witnesses formed the basis of conviction of the others.
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Senior Advocate Manisha Lavkumar Shah was appearing for the state of Gujarat and opposed the bail said a trial court in 2011 had convicted 18, but one of them died. The remaining 17 had then moved the Gujarat High Court, which handed out life term to 14 of them in 2016, acquitting three. The 14 convicts have now appealed against their conviction in the SC. Their bail applications were filed even as their appeal remains pending in SC.
33 Muslims were burnt alive at Sardarpura village in February 2002, in the aftermath of the burning of a bogie of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in which 59 people died. At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the riots that ensued.
On February 28, 2002, hundreds of people surrounded the Sheikh Vaas lane in Sardarpura, near Surat city, and the mob burnt the house of a man where victims had taken shelter. Police arrested 76 people in connection with the case, two of whom died during the trial. The trial court on November 9, 2011, sentenced 31 people to life imprisonment while acquitting the rest.
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