22 accused in post-Godhra riots case in which 17 people were killed acquitted

GODHRA, JAN 25 (PTI):

A court at Halol town in Gujarat’s Panchmahal district has acquitted 22 people, accused of killing 17 members of a minority community including two children, for want of evidence in a case stemming from the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots in the state.

According to the prosecution, the victims were killed on February 28, 2002 and their bodies burnt with an intention to destroy evidence.

The court of Addi - tional Sessions Judge Harsh Trivedi on Tuesday acquitted all the 22 accused, eight of whom died during the pendency of the case, defence lawyer Gopalsinh Solanki said. “The court acquitted all the accused in the case of rioting and murder of 17 members of a minority community, including two children, in Delol village of the district for want of evidence, Solanki said.

Communal riots had broken out in different parts of the state a day after a bogie of the Sabarmati Ex- press was torched by a mob near Godhra town in Panchmahal district on February 27, 2002, killing 59 passengers, most of them ‘karsevaks’ returning from Ayodhya. An FIR (first information report) was lodged under Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to murder and rioting after the violence in Delol village. documentary film on the university campus today,” it said in the statement.

Another police inspector lodged a case afresh nearly two years after the incident and arrested 22 people for their alleged involvement in the riots.

The university had earlier issued a memorandum/ circular reiterating that no meeting/gathering of students or screening of any film shall be allowed on the campus without permission from the competent authority.

It said strict disciplinary action shall be taken against organisers in case of any violation.

“The university is taking all possible measures to prevent people/organisations having a vested interest to destroy the peaceful academic atmosphere of the university,” it said.

The SFI’s attempt to screen the documentary at the Jamia campus comes a day after a similar event was organised at Jawaharlal Nehru University during which students claimed that power and Internet were suspended and stones hurled at them.