Gulberg verdict: 11 convicted awarded life, 12 others to be jailed for 7 years

A special court on Friday sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment ,12 others to seven years and one more to ten years in jail in the Gulberg Society massacre case, in which 69 people were killed.

The special investigation court had found 24 people guilty on June 2, 11 of them of murder, in the 14-year-old case. Sixty-nine people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed on February 28, 2002 in the communal violence that ravaged Gujarat.

Justice PB Desai, while acquitting 36 people, including alleged main conspirator and BJP councillor Bipin Patel, rejected claims that the attack on the predominantly Muslim



residential area was planned.

Arguing against capital punishment, the defence, led by advocate Abhay Bhardwaj, sought lighter punishment. It based its argument on the court ruling out the conspiracy angle.

The two sides concluded the arguments on June 10.

A mob carrying weapons attacked the cluster of 29 bungalows and 10 apartments on February 28, 2002, a day after 59 Hindu activists were killed when a coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt in nearby Godhra. The massacre was one of the worst single incidents in the days-long riots in Gujarat that left more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, dead.