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Gulbarg Society Massacre: Hearing on quantum of punishment adjourned till June 9
Monday June 6, 2016 6:29 PM, Agencies

Ahmedabad: A special sessions court on Monday adjourned the quantum of punishment to 24 people convicted for massacring 69 people at Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg Housing Society in 2002 till June 9.

The court observed that the quantum of punishment for an accused who has jumped parole cannot be pronounced. Arguments in the case will continue on June 9, when the quantum of punishment is likely to be pronounced.

An armed mob had set on fire the entire Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area, inhabited by members of the minority community, in broad day light killing 69 people on February 28, 2002. Among those killed in the brutality was former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.

While the charred bodies of 39 people were found from the spot after the arson, 30 other people were declared dead by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) as there was no trace of them 12 years after the incident.

In his verdict 14 years after the massacre, special sessions court judge PB Desai on Thursday convicted 24 people, including Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Atul Vaidya but rejected the charge of conspiracy.

Of the 24 people convicted, the court found 11 persons guilty of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and 13 others guilty of lesser crime.

All the 60 accused remained present in court while their family members thronged the court compound in large numbers.

The court had heard the case on a day-to-day basis on the instructions of the Supreme Court, which on February 22 this year, directed the sessions court to pronounce its verdict in three months time.

The Gulbarg massacre case is one of the nine major cases of the 2002 Gujarat violence which were probed by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Earlier, the apex court while instructing the special court to expedite the hearing of the case had also said that the judgment should not be pronounced without its permission.

The SIT had named 66 accused in the case. Nine of them have been in jail for the last 14 years, while the remaining were out on bail.




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