18 sentenced to life in jail over Gujarat riots

Agencies/Ahmedabad

An elderly man, one of 23 people found guilty in the 2002 Ode village massacre, is carried by a police official towards a vehicle on the campus of a Special Court in Anand, some 75km from Ahmedabad yesterday. The court sentenced 18 of the 23 to life imprisonment

A court in Gujarat yesterday sentenced 18 men to life imprisonment over the killing of 23 Muslims during religious riots in the western state in 2002 that left more than 2,000 dead. Five other men were handed seven-year jail terms for crimes committed when the Hindu rioters entered the village of Ode in Anand district, bolted the doors of a house where Muslim families had taken refuge and then set it on fire. Of the 23 who died in what became known as the “Ode massacre,” nine were women and nine children. It was one of India’s worst outbreaks of religious violence in recent years.The violence in Gujarat in 2002 was triggered by the killing of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims travelling in a train in Godhra that was torched by a mob. Muslims were blamed for starting the train fire, and Hindu mobs eager for revenge went on the rampage through Muslim neighbourhoods in towns and villages across Gujarat in three days of violence following the incident. A lawyer for the convicted said they would appeal in a higher court.The case refers to killings that took place in Ode village on  March 1, 2002 a few days after the Godhra train deaths.A mob of around 2,000 people went through the village targeting Muslim homes. A house where 23 Muslims, mostly women and children, had taken shelter was set alight.The Ode massacre is one of 10 key incidents in the riots being probed by an independent Special Investigating Team (SIT) set up in 2008 after a Supreme Court directive. Forty-seven people in Ode were charged with murder, conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly, attempt to murder and destruction of evidence by the SIT. One defendant died during the trial.Gujarat’s authorities have been criticised for not doing enough to stop the riots. Two other cases looked at by the SIT have brought convictions. Last November, a court sentenced 31 people to life in prison for burning to death 33 Muslims near Sardarpura village in Gujarat.And in February 2011, a special court in Gujarat found 31 people guilty of setting fire to the passenger train full of Hindu pilgrims in Godhra. Another 63 people were acquitted of conspiracy and murder.The cause of the Godhra train fire is still a matter of fierce debate. A commission of inquiry set up in 2008 by the Gujarat state government determined that it was the result of a conspiracy.But a 2005 federal government inquiry concluded that the fire had been an accident - probably started by people cooking in one of the carriages - and was not the result of an attack.Gujarat’s authorities have been accused of not doing enough to stop the riots.The 2008 state inquiry exonerated Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, over the riots.And earlier this week a court said special investigators had found no evidence linking Modi to the Gulbarg Society massacre, in which 69 people were killed in a housing complex in Ahmedabad city during the riots. Modi, Gujarat’s chief minister since 2001, has always denied any wrongdoing in connection with the riots but has never expressed any remorse or offered any apologies.Although the 2002 violence tarnished Modi’s image, the controversial leader remains one of BJP’s top leaders. He has won state elections in Gujarat twice since the riots and hopes to play a larger role in national politics.