-The Times of India
More than a decade after 23 people, mostly women and children, were killed when a mob set ablaze a shelter for Muslims huddled together for safety in Ode during the post-Godhra riots, a Gujarat court on Monday found 23 of the suspects guilty of murder and conspiracy. The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) has sought the death sentence for those convicted of murder.
The special court in Anand will decide the punishment on Thursday. Of the 23 convicted, designated judge Poonam Singh held 18 guilty of murder, while four others were convicted of attempt to murder and one for rioting. All of them were found guilty of conspiracy, unlawful assembly and rioting.
The court acquitted 23 others named as accused in the violence in the small town of Anand district. In all, 49 were accused in the massacre, of which one died during the trial. Two of the accused are absconding and have allegedly fled the country. A red corner notice has been issued against one of them. Of the 158 witnesses who testified in the trial, 35 turned hostile.
The Ode massacre was one of nine sensitive 2002 riot cases the Supreme Court ordered the SIT to probe. A mob of nearly 1,500 people attacked a house in Ode’s Pirawali Bhagol area in which panicky Muslims had taken shelter on March 1, 2002, burning alive 23 people — nine children, nine woman and five men.
The next day, the mob attacked and killed a senior citizen, Ghulam Rasool Saiyed. Fifteen men, who were already named in the first case, were also named in the second attack. Charges were dropped against the 15 on Monday in the Saiyed murder case due to lack of evidence. Saiyed’s own children – son Asrar and daughter Farida – turned hostile in the case.
The Ode massacre is the third case in the last 10 years, where a special court has pronounced verdict after an SIT probe. The first came in the Sabarmati Express carnage at Godhra, which triggered the riots after 59 people, mainly kar sevaks, were killed. Of the 31 people found guilty, 11 have been given the death sentence and 20 are serving life imprisonment terms.
In the other case – the Sardarpura massacre in north Gujarat – the court has sentenced 31 people to life imprisonment and acquitted 42 others. Thirty-three people were killed in Sardarpura.
The Gujarat high court is still grappling with a related issue in the Ode case. The police had filed just one FIR in two separate incidents – the killing of 23 people on March 1, 2002 and the murder of Ghulam Rasool Saiyed the next day. The cops, however, filed two separate chargesheets in the two cases, flummoxing legal experts. Witnesses say this is against the law and have approached the high court.