Gulbarg society case: Quantum of punishment to be pronounced on 17 June

The Special SIT court has deferred announcing the quantum of sentence in the Gulbarg Society massacre case, in which 69 Muslims including congress leader Ehsaan Jafri were killed, to 17 June.

#Flash 2002 Gulbarg society case: Court to pronounce the quantum of sentence on June 17.

— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2016

The court of Special Judge P B Desai said that the quantum of sentence will be declared on 17 June, after the prosecution submitted a list of jail terms spent by all 24 convicts, as asked by the court. In a  battle for justice that has lasted 14 long years, the court had on 2 June convicted 24 accused in the case; 11 were charged with murder and other offences while six, including VHP leader Atul Vaidy, were charged with lesser offences. It had also acquitted 36 others in the case. The massacre was one of the deadliest in the 2002 Gujarat riots when 250 Muslims took refuge in Jafri’s house, in the wake of the violence that erupted after a Sabarmati express coach was torched.  A mob of nearly four hundred people attacked the society in the heart of the Gujarat and killed the residents, mostly upper caste Muslims. [caption id=“attachment_2831762” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A survivor of the Gulbarg Society Massacre poses inside his house which was burnt and damaged. Reuters[/caption] During the arguments, special public prosecutor and counsel for Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), RC Kodekar, had asked the court for nothing less than death sentence or jail term till death for all 24 convicts. He said all 24 convicts were found guilty of offence under section 149 of the IPC, and therefore required to be treated at par when the sentence is pronounced. Section 149 states that “every person who, at the time of the committing of that offence, is a member of the same assembly, is guilty of that offence”. “The manner of crime was cruel, barbaric and inhuman. Victims’ bodies were roasted alive, in the crime for which there was no provocation, much less in case of women and children who were defenceless,” Kodekar had told the court. He also informed the court during the course of hearing that those involved in the ghastly act of killing the residents of Gulbarg were either known to them or their neighbours, and not terrorists from other country. Lawyer for the victims, S M Vora, also sought maximum punishment for the accused and argued that sentence for each offence should not run concurrently so that they spend their entire life in jail. However, lawyer of the accused, Abhay Bhardwaj, refuted the demand for capital punishment or maximum punishment in his arguments, saying that the incident was spontaneous and there were enough provocations for it. “Since the conspiracy has not been established, asking the court for capital punishment on partially relied evidence is not appropriate,” Bhardwaj had earlier told the court. Bharadwaj pleaded leniency in punishment on the grounds of the convicts’ lack of criminal background, their chances of rehabilitation after retribution and their socio-economic standing in the society. The Gulbarg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court appointed SIT. The Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31. During the course of trial, as many as 338 witnesses were cross-examined, with four different judges having presided over the case. Of the 66 accused named by the SIT in the case, nine are behind bars while others are out on bail. The kin of the victims have however, called this a half victory as 36 of the accused were let off as the court found evidence against them ‘inconsequential’. The court had also dropped charges of ‘criminal conspiracy’ in the case citing lack of evidence. Reacting to the judgement, former the congress leader’s wife, Zakia Jafri had said that she was disappointing with the verdict. “I expected all to be convicted…how they killed people, how they made them homeless, I saw it myself. I can’t dare to ask for capital punishment but maximum punishment should be given,” she said.

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Zakia #EXCLUSIVE:Complete justice not done will appeal against verdict.Sad that 36 have been let off #GulbargVerdict pic.twitter.com/QFjpAnaRP4

— News18 (@CNNnews18) June 2, 2016

Social activist Teesta Setalvad, who had been supporting the victims in the fights for justice, said that they are keeping the option to appeal in a higher court open. With inputs from agencies