A court in Nadiad taluka of Gujarat on Monday convicted 15 persons for the massacre of 14 Muslims during the post-Godhra communal riots in Ghodasar village in Kheda district on March 3, 2002.

Forty-eight others were, however, acquitted.

Sessions court judge C K Rane pronounced his judgment in the case in which 12 of the accused were charged under section 302 of IPC and three under section 324 of IPC.

The 14 persons were slaughtered in an open field by an armed rioting mob on March 3 when they were fleeing the area following rumours that three persons of the majority community, who had died nearby, were done to death by members of the minority community.

Police had arrested 64 people of which one died in judicial custody while the case was in progress. Only 12 of the accused were in judicial custody when the judgment was pronounced.

Defence Advocate T R Vajpayee told PTI that the judge would pronounce the sentence on Tuesday.