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11 get lifer in Gulberg massacre case
Calling Gulberg massacre the \"darkest day\" in the history of civil society, a special SIT court on Friday awarded life term to 11 convicts for burning alive 69 people, including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri, in one of the worst riots post-Godhra violence in 2002.
Ahmedabad: Calling Gulberg massacre the "darkest day" in the history of civil society, a special SIT court on Friday awarded life term to 11 convicts for burning alive 69 people, including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri, in one of the worst riots post-Godhra violence in 2002.
However, the judgement left the prosecution, Jafri's widow Zakia and civil rights activists disappointed saying it was lenient on the perpetrators of the worst type of violence in a residential colony in Gujarat's capital.
Rejecting the demand for death sentence for all the convicts, the court said life imprisonment for the 11 will be till death if the state does not exercise power to remit the sentence, which Special court Judge P B Desai said was not necessary.
It awarded 10-year jail term to one of the 13 convicted for lesser offences while the other 12 have been given a seven-year sentence each.
The prosecution had argued that all the 24 convicts should be given death penalty. While describing the massacre as the darkest day in the history of civil society, the judge refused death penalty saying, "If you look at all aspects, no previous antecedent has been placed on record".
The court said it has decided to award imprisonment for life without any time frame to the 11, who have been convicted for murder, while requesting the state not to use its power to remit the sentence after 14 years of imprisonment.
Reacting to the judgement, SIT's Special Prosecutor R C Kodekar expressed dissatisfaction and said they would appeal in the high court as he felt the sentence was too "lenient". Zakia Jafri said life sentence should have been given to all the convicts while her son Tanvir said there was definitely "some sense of closure" at the convictions.
Activist-lawyer Teesta Setalvad, who has been appearing in cases relating to the Gujarat riots, said "we are very disappointed".
The Gulberg Society massacre, which took place here on February 28, 2002 when Narendra Modi was the Gujarat Chief Minister, shook the nation when a mob of 400 people set about attacking the society in the heart of Ahmedabad and burnt alive its residents including Jafri.
Source: Agencies
