Ahmedabad: Nineteen years after three men were convicted and sentenced to five-year rigorous imprisonment in a 2002 post-Godhra riots case by a fast track court, the Gujarat High Court has acquitted them by observing that their conviction was not based on reliable evidence.
A bench of Justice Gita Gopi allowed the appeals filed by Sachinbhai Hasmukhbhai Patel and Ashokbhai Jashbhai Patel, and Ashok Banarasi Bharatbhai, challenging imprisonment under Section 149 (unlawful assembly with a common object) of the IPC and six months of rigorous imprisonment under Section 147 (rioting).
The prosecution had stated that the three men had set on fire several shops in Anand, a day after two coaches of the Sabarmati Express train were set on fire at Godhra station on February 27, 2002.
The crowd allegedly damaged shops and set some of them on fire, violating the order issued by the district magistrate under section 135 of the Bombay Police Act.
The high court noted that whether the appellants were members of the unlawful assembly and involved in arson had not been proved. None of their acts in prosecution of the common object — of setting things on fire and damaging the private and public property — has been proved during the trial, the high court stated.
The Gujarat High Court observed that the Test Identification Parade (TIP) was not conducted on the convicts, highlighting gaps in the case.
“The learned trial court judge had erred in the appreciation of the evidence. Conviction is not based on reliable and corroborative evidence. The identification of the accused has not been proved during the trial,” the high court stated in the order passed on Monday, July 28.
Of the nine individuals who faced trial, four had been convicted and handed five-year rigorous imprisonment under sections of the Indian Penal Code for rioting, arson, unlawful assembly, etc. One appellant died in 2009.
On February 27, 2002, 59 people were killed when the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra, triggering riots in Gujarat.
(With PTI inputs)
