2002 Godhra Train Burning: SC Grants Bail To 8 Convicts, Denies Relief To 4 Others

The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to eight Godhra tragedy convicts while denying relief to four others.

A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha granted bail to eight prisoners according to the conditions imposed by the Sessions Court.

On February 20 of this year, the Court had sought details about the convicts, including their age and time served in jail, to help it decide their bail applications moved by them.

The Gujarat government, represented by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, had expressed strong opposition to the Gujarat High Court’s 2017 decision to commute 11 prisoners’ death sentences to life imprisonment.

Mehta informed the Court that the trial court had sentenced 20 convicts to life in prison and 11 convicts to death. According to him, the High Court later remitted the death penalty for the 11 convicted to life imprisonment.

According to Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, some of the inmates are now in their 60s. Hegde also left it up to the Court to decide whether the death penalty should be maintainable or not against the 11 convicts who were previously given punishment by the trial court.

Last December, the Supreme Court granted bail to one of the 31 convicts in the February 2002 Godhra train burning.

The Godhra train burning ignited communal rioting in Gujarat, killing roughly 2,000 people.