Convicted, 15 to be sentenced today for role in Gujarat massacre

In the first major conviction in a post-Godhra riot case, the Nadiad sessions court today convicted 15 persons for the massacre of 14 Muslim...

In the first major conviction in a post-Godhra riot case, the Nadiad sessions court today convicted 15 persons for the massacre of 14 Muslims in Ghodasar village. The court acquitted 48 other accused.

The sentence will be pronounced tomorrow after sessions court judge C K Rane hears what both counsels have to say.

Fourteen residents of the village were killed in an open field on March 3, 2002 as they were trying to flee an armed mob that had surrounded the village.

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Pronouncing the order in a packed court, the judge observed, ‘‘Of the 15 persons found guilty in the case, 12 are guilty of murder, while 3 others have been found guilty of offence under section 324 of the Indian Penal Code (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous Convicted, 15 to be sentenced

today for role in Gujarat massacre

weapons).’’ Of the 63 accused, 51 were out on bail while 12 were in judicial custody.

‘‘The court examined 14 eye-witnesses during the trial, including two eye witnesses who were victims themselves. The conviction is most probably based on the evidence given by them,’’ said defence counsel T R Vajpayee. The court had examined all the 46 witnesses.

Public prosecutor Paresh Dhora said, ‘‘The state has been able to get convictions as all the witnesses stood their ground and none of them turned hostile.’’

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The prosecution had argued that a 4,000-strong mob surrounded the village and killed 14 people in the fields as they were fleeing Ghodasar. The defence argued that the murder was a reaction to the murder of three Hindus a day earlier and pleaded that the accused were innocent. This case, where all the accused are Muslims, is pending in court.