11 get life, 13 others jail terms in Gulberg Society case

Sentences of life imprisonment were given on Friday to 11 people in the Gulberg Society massacre case during the Gujarat riots of 2002. The court also sentenced 12 to seven years in jail; one man got 10 years. Earlier this month, the court had said these 24 were guilty of participation; 69 people were killed at Gulberg. As many as 36 others who'd been charged were acquitted. A four-time Bharatiya Janata Party municipal councillor, Bipin Patel, was one of those acquitted. Zakia Jafri, widow of former Lok Sabha member Ehsan Jafri, a Congress party member and among those killed by the mob, said: "After so many people died, that's all the court could decide? Just 12 guilty? I will have to fight this."

"I am not satisfied, I am not happy. I will have to consult my lawyers again," she was quoted as saying. Abhay Bhardway, counsel for some of those accused, had argued (after the convictions) that the violence was spontaneous and as a result of provocation.

R C Kodekar, the prosecutor representing the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team into the case, had asked the court for a death sentence or life in jail for all the 24 convicted.

The city police had been put on a high alert ahead of the verdict, which judge P B Desai was to deliver after a seven-year trial. Of 66 accused, five died during the trial, conducted under four judges. In all, 338 people testified. That included current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the state chief minister; Zakia Jafri had levelled charges of a larger conspiracy.