A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha stated that the convict has been imprisoned for 17 years while noting that the offender’s appeal is still pending before it.
The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to Faruk, who is one of the other convicted, in the Godhra train burning event of February 2002 which led to the communal riots in Gujarat.
“Granting bail. It has been 17 long years. Appeal against conviction pending before top court,” the bench said.
On February 27, 2002, coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express caught on fire at the Godhra station, killing 59 people. The coach was carrying kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya. According to official numbers, the incident sparked extensive communal rioting in Gujarat, killing 1,044 people.
In connection with the train fire incident, more than 100 persons were arrested and tried. In February 2011, the trial court convicted 31 people and acquitted 63. Eleven of them were sentenced to death, while the remaining twenty were sentenced to life in prison.
Following an appeal, the Gujarat High Court upheld the convictions of all but reduced the death sentences of the 11 to life imprisonment in October 2017.
Tushar Mehta, representing the Gujarat government, opposed Faruk’s bail application, claiming that the case was not “mere stone-pelting” by the convicts because it prevented passengers from escaping the burning train coach.
The appeals filed by the convicts in the Supreme Court are pending since 2018.
Written by RISHAV RAJ , BBA LL.B , (RNB GLOBAL UNIVERSITY)
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