Godhra train burning judgement does not justify riots: Moily

New Delhi, Mar 1 (ANI): Union Law and Justice Minister M. Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said the verdict of the Ahmedabad special court in the 2002 Godhra case does not justify the riots that followed the train burning incident.

"Judgement does not justify the riots that followed after (train burning) it," Moily told reporters outside the Parliament.

"How can you justify that... trial of those (riot) cases has to go on independently and culprits have to be punished," he said.

A special court in Ahmedabad earlier today awarded the death penalty to eleven accused and life imprisonment to 20 others in the 2002 Godhra train burning case.

Designated Judge PR Patel hearing the case inside the Sabarmati Central Jail pronounced the quantum of punishment to those who were found guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder.

The court, on February 22, convicted 31 and acquitted 63 others, including the prime conspirator Maulvi Hussain Umarji

The court accepted the prosecution's contention that there was a conspiracy behind the incident.

Apart from the charges of murder, attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, the accused were convicted under IPC sections 147, 148 (rioting with deadly weapons), 323, 324, 325, 326 (causing hurt), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on religious grounds), various sections of the Indian Railways Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and Bombay Police Act.

The court pronounced judgment on the role of over 90 people accused of conspiring and burning the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002. Fifty-nine people, mostly Kar Sewaks returning from Ayodhya, were killed in the incident.

Following the incident, widespread communal riots broke out in various parts of Gujaratin which over 1,000 people, mostly from the minority community, were killed. (ANI)