SC grants bail to eight in Godhra case

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has granted bail to eight people sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra train burning case which plunged Gujarat into a communal conflagration.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha, while granting them the relief on April 21 took note of the time they have already served and the unlikelihood of their appeals being taken up for disposal anytime soon. “We direct that the convicts be released on bail subject to such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the sessions court,” the bench said.

The convicts granted bail are — Abdul Sattar Ibrahim Gaddi Asla, Yunus Abdul Hakk Samol, Mohammad Hanif Abdulla Moulvi Badam, Abdul Rauf Abdul Majid Isa, Ibrahim Abdulrazak Abdul Sattar Samol, Ayub Abdul Gani Ismail Pataliya, Soheb Yusuf Ahmed Kalandar and Suleman Ahmad Hussain.

The top court, however, refused to grant bail to four convicts – Anwar Mohammad Mehda, Saukat Abdulla Moulvi Ismail Badam, Mehboob Yakub Mitha and Siddik Mohammad Moraafter Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed their applications highlighting their role in the incident.

On February 27, 2002, 59 people were killed when the S-6 coach of the train was burnt at Gujarat’s Godhra, triggering riots that soon engulfed many parts of the state. In its October 2017 judgment, the high court had commuted the death sentence awarded to 11 convicts in the Godhra train burning case to life imprisonment. It had upheld the life sentence awarded to 20 others.