Our stand on Godhra carnage vindicated: BJP

"The judgment has established that this was a pre-planned conspiracy, hatched and executed with finesse, so the state government's stand has been vindicated," Vyas told reporters.

"The judgment today has dismissed all the wrong propaganda of the so called NGOs --that the Godhra train burning incident was not a pre-planned conspiracy," he said.

Vyas said that the government will decide on its future course of action after studying the judgment.

"The judgment has just been delivered. We are yet to get the full text of the judgment. We shall study the judgment first and then further reaction will follow," he said.

Vyas, also the state health minister, said the question of compensation to those acquitted by the court does not arise.

"Even the public prosecutors were appointed by the SIT, so it is a perfectly independent process of justice that has established beyond any doubt that this was a well hatched conspiracy and that was our stand right from day one," he said.

"Those so-called NGOs, which were trying to malign Gujarat, trying to point fingers at the state government, I think have fallen flat," said the BJP leader.

"I think it was a long motivated propaganda against the state and the people of Gujarat by them (NGOs)," he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party also welcomed the Gujarat special court's verdict convicting 31 accused in the 2002 Godhra train burning case. The verdict had 'exposed the nefarious designs' of the United Progressive Alliance government which 'tried to cover up' the entire episode, the party claimed.

"Certainly, there has been a degree of assurance that law and justice has prevailed. There were elements which were trying to belittle it. There have been politicians who tried to abuse it," BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad told reporters.

He slammed the Justice U C Banerjee Committee report, which found that the fire was lit from inside the coach.

The Banerjee Committee, appointed by then Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to probe the cause of fire in the Sabarmati Express in Godhra, had found that the fire was
'accidental'.

"You remember the Banerjee commission report. A retired judge of Supreme Court gave a collusive report that the fire was lit from inside," Prasad told reporters outside Parliament.

"It was a sham report at the time of 2005 elections," he added.

Asked about the acquittal of one of the prime accused -- Maulana Umraji -- Prasad said, "The conspiracy has been established."

Reacting to the judgment, BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay said, "This has exposed the nefarious designs of the UPA government, which tried to cover up the entire ghastly episode."

Alleging that the UPA government tried to put the blame on the victims themselves, he said, "But we welcome the fact that the culprits have been given punishments."

"It has exposed the so-called secularists including (Rashtriya Janata Dal president) Lalu (Prasad), the UPA government which had set up a fake inquiry under a retired SC judge, which put the blame on victims themselves. This verdict has to be welcomed initially," he said.

Thirty one people were convicted by a special court in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident that left 59 people dead. The incident triggered massive violence in Gujarat that claimed the lives of over 1,200 people, mainly Muslims.