A special SIT court on Wednesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for his role in the 2002 Godhra train carnage case. The court of special SIT Judge HC Vora convicted sexagenarian Yakub Pataliya, who was part of the mob that torched the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002, killing 59 passengers, mostly 'karsevaks' returning from Ayodhya. The incident triggered state-wide communal riots in Gujarat.
Pataliya, who was absconding for a long-time, was arrested by the Godhra police in January 2018, nearly 16 years after being booked in the train carnage case. His trial was held in a special court set up at the Sabarmati Central Jail.
Earlier, the special court had convicted 31 people in the case on March 1, 2011. While 20 of them were awarded life imprisonment, the remaining 11 were given death sentence. Those convicted approached the Gujarat High Court against the sentence awarded to them by the SIT court. Later in October 2017, the high court commuted the death sentence of 11 convicts to life imprisonment. However, it upheld the life imprisonment awarded to the 20 convicts by the SIT court.
Interestingly, the special SIT court sentenced two persons — Farooq Bhana and Imran Sheri — to life imprisonment in August 2018 and acquitted three others identified as Hussain Suleman Mohan, Kasam Bhamedi, and Faruk Dhantiya.
All of them were arrested by different law enforcement agencies between 2015 and 2016 and put on trial at the special court set-up at Sabarmati Central Jail.
Eight accused in the case are still absconding.
