New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to 8 convicts serving life imprisonment in the 2002 Godhra case in Gujarat. However, the pleas of the other 4 accused have been rejected. It has been learned that the court decided on the bail of the accused, who are serving 17 to 18 years in jail, taking into consideration the time served and their role in the crime. In the same case, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected the bail pleas of 11 convicts, who were sentenced to death by the trial court. Let us know that in February 2002, 59 pilgrims were burnt alive in a train compartment in Godhra in Gujarat. Due to which violence broke out in the entire state.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta demanded from the Gujarat government that all the accused, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, be re-sentenced to death. In the Godhra incident, stone pelting on the train should not be considered a normal attack and they said that this is the rarest of rare cases. In which 59 people including women and children were burnt alive.
Let it be known that the trial court convicted 31 people in this case. Out of which 11 accused were sentenced to death, while 20 were sentenced to life imprisonment. After this, the accused appealed in the Gujarat High Court. Gujarat High Court also declared 31 accused guilty. However, the sentences of 11 accused who were sentenced to death were commuted to life imprisonment. Apart from this, a bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and JB Padriwala of the Supreme Court heard these bail applications. There were a total of 31 convicts in the case, out of which the bail applications of 15 have been rejected. 8 convicts got bail today. The bail application of 7 persons is pending in the Supreme Court. And one convict got bail only in December last year.