Godhra sentencing based on dubious evidence: Swami Agnivesh
March 1st, 2011 - 5:39 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, March 1 (IANS) Noted civil rights activist Swami Agnivesh Tuesday said the sentencing of 11 people to the gallows and 20 others to life imprisonment in the Godhra train-burning incident was a “hollow case based on dubious evidence”. “The whole verdict appears to be weak as it is based on dubious evidence of a single person,” Agnivesh told IANS here.
He recalled that the media had exposed the loopholes in the Godhra conspiracy theory.
“The verdict is a very weak, hollow one. It will come up for appeal in the higher court. I am sure the truth will come out at last,” Agnivesh added.
According to the rights activist, the charge that Muslim conspirators collaborated with a Hindu vendor was unconvincing. The judge, he said, had “based the judgment on the basis of dubious evidence of a single person”.
A special court in Ahmedabad Tuesday sent to the gallows 11 people and gave life imprisonment to 20 others for the February 2002 burning of a train coach in Gujarat’s Godhra town, in which 59 people were killed, triggering a communal frenzy that claimed an estimated 1,000 lives in the state.
The 31 people were convicted Feb 22 and held guilty of conspiring and setting on fire S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express near the Godhra railway station Feb 27, 2002. The train, carrying many radical Hindu activists, was on its way back from Uttar Pradesh’s temple town Ayodhya.
The court had acquitted 63 others, including alleged mastermind Maulvi Saeed Umarji.
- Noose for 11, life for 20 in Godhra train burning (Third Lead) - Mar 01, 2011
- Godhra case should be re-investigated: Prashant Bhushan - Mar 01, 2011
- 11 get the noose for Godhra train burning, 21 sentenced to life (Lead) - Mar 01, 2011
- Godhra train carnage: Hearing put off for two months - Apr 06, 2011
- Godhra train burning: death for 11, life for 20 (Second Lead) - Mar 01, 2011
- Death sought for Godhra train burning convicts (Lead) - Feb 25, 2011
- 31 convicted, 63 acquitted for Godhra train burning (Roundup) - Feb 22, 2011
- Godhra train burning judgement does not justify riots: Moily - Mar 01, 2011
- Godhra case: Death sentence for 11, life terms for 20 - Mar 01, 2011
- Gujarat court to pronounce verdict on Godhra accused on March 1 - Feb 25, 2011
- 31 convicted in Godhra train burning, sentencing Friday (Third Lead) - Feb 22, 2011
- Godhra train carnage sentencing March 1 (Second Lead) - Feb 25, 2011
- Top cop says Gujarat CM Modi involved in Godhra case - Apr 22, 2011
- Godhra case: Quantum of punishment to be announced today - Mar 01, 2011
- Justice Nanavati Commission summons top Gujarat cop Bhatt - Apr 27, 2011
Tags: ahmedabad, civil rights, conspiracy theory, conspirators, dubious evidence, frenzy, gallows, gujarat, hindu activists, judgment, life imprisonment, loopholes, mastermind, New Delhi, railway station, sabarmati express, swami, temple town, train coach, uttar pradesh