#Ahmedabad : The court has also ruled that the massacre “was not a pre-planned conspiracy.”A Special Court on Thursday convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 people in the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre case, in which former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among those killed. The remaining 13 persons have been convicted for rioting and on other charges but not murder.
The court posted sentencing in the case for June 6. The court has also ruled that the massacre “was not a pre-planned conspiracy.”
BJP councillor Bipin Patel and former police inspector K.G. Erda, who were added as accused in the case by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the apex court to reinvestigate the nine most crucial cases, were among those acquitted.
The court has acquitted 36 persons for “lack of evidence” against them.
‘Will continue to fight’ Zakia Jafri
Reacting on the verdict, Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, said she would continue to fight for justice as many accused have been acquitted by the trial court.
“I am happy to see 24 have been found guilty but at the same time, 36 have been let off so its incomplete justice,” she said.
As soon as judge P.B. Desai started reading his verdict in the overcrowded courtroom, relatives of the victims and the accused erupted in celebrations.
The case was among the nine most crucial cases which were reinvestigated by the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation team (SIT) headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghavan.
The prosecution agency SIT had, during the course of trial that had began in 2009 after the SIT was constituted, submitted that the massacre was a pre-planned conspiracy as rioters had targeted the minority dominated housing colony in the area.
However, the lawyers appearing for the accused had refuted the conspiracy charge and stressed that the mob had gathered spontaneously and not as “pre-planned” and the mob started violence only after Mr Ehsan Jafri fired from his weapon at the crowed.
A total 338 witnesses had been examined by the court during the trial.
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