7 Godhra riot convicts to do social service at Narmada Kumbh

Seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in a 2002 post-Godhra riot case in Gujarat will work as volunteers in the Narmada Kumbh beginning here in Madhya Pradesh on February 24, an official said on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court last month granted bail to 15 convicts -- sentenced to life imprisonment for a massacre in Ode town of Gujarat's Anand district in which 23 people were burnt alive -- on the condition that they will stay outside Gujarat and do community service at Indore and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

They arrived in Madhya Pradesh in two groups - one of seven convicts in Jabalpur and another of six convicts in Indore. They will take up social/community services, meditation drill and spiritual programmes ras per the Supreme Court directives.

"Seven of these convicts reached Jabalpur on Tuesday night. They will be volunteering at the Narmada Kumbh," Madhya Pradesh State Legal Services Authority member secretary Giribala Singh told PTI.

The Narmada Kumbh, held every five years, is scheduled to be held from February 24 to March 3 on the banks of the Narmada river at Gwarighat on the city's outskirts.

Apart from the Narmada Kumbh, these convicts will work as volunteers in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, at old age homes, and take care of patients, who have no one to look after, in hospitals, Singh said.

Efforts will be made to help them in picking up work as per their choice under the smart city project underway here so that they can earn their livelihood, she said.

"All these works will inculcate in them a feeling of serving the community," Singh said.

Their identity was being withheld for safety reasons, she added.