Twelve witnesses identified Zabir Bin Yamin Behra, who has been charged under Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The government had appealed the grant of bail by high court to four accused in the Godhra carnage.
The Gujarat Government has challenged a high court order granting bail to certain accused persons in the Godhra train burning incident.
The prosecution on Friday sought death penalty for all the 31 convicts in the Godhra train carnage case in a special court in Ahmedabad which reserved till March 1 the pronouncement of quantum of punishment for them.
Bilkis Bano, a survivor of the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, on Wednesday said the premature release of all the 11 convicts serving a life sentence in a case related to her and seven family members, has shaken faith in justice and left her numb.
Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt was in the courtroom at the Sabarmati Jail where the judgment in the Godhra train burning case was pronounced on Tuesday. She has also followed and written about the twists and turns in the historic nine-year legal battle. Her impressions and analysis of the verdict.
2019 was the Bharatiya Janata Party's breakout year, when it stretched the boundaries of what was thought possible and ended up with 303 seats on its own steam. Now it is forced to play defence, on a pitch queered by too many variables, asserts Prem Panicker.
The petition said there was need for constituting a commission of inquiry headed by a sitting judge of the high court, as neither the Centre nor the state government has taken appropriate action over the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the incident and the riots in 2002.
Godhra municipality councillor Salim Abdul Gaffar Sheikh has been accused of being at the spot, armed with lethal weapons, where the Sabarmati Express was burned down.
They were found guilty of killing 14 Muslims in Ginjar village in Ghodasar area on the outskirts of Nadiad on March 3, 2002.
The Supreme Court has refused to entertain the Narendra Modi government's plea for staying the Gujarat high court's February 8 order to pay compensation to over 500 shrines damaged during the infamous 2002 riots in the wake of the Godhra train carnage. While declining to entertain the plea, a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra also asked the state government to furnish details of the number of religious structures actually damaged.
Setalvad was taken into custody on June 25 last year along with former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar and ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in an offence registered by Ahmedabad crime branch police for allegedly fabricating evidence to frame "innocent people" in the post-Godhra riots cases.
C K Raulji, the BJP MLA from Godhra, said he does not know whether the convicts, released after spending more than 15 years in jail, were involved in the crime.
A former British envoy has deposed before a special court through video conferencing in connection with a post-Godhra riot case, where four persons, including three British nationals, were killed in Sabarkantha district.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi took all possible steps to control the 2002 post-Godhra riots and questioned the motive behind filing a complaint against him by a riot victim four years after the communal violence.
In a relief to Narendra Modi, the Gujarat high court on Wednesday rejected a petition seeking directions to the Nanavati Commission to summon the state chief minister for questioning in connection with the 2002 riots.
The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Centre and the Gujarat government on a plea challenging the remission granted to 11 life convicts in the case of Bilkis Bano's gangrape and murder of her family members.
The Narendra Modi government was on Wednesday pulled up by the Gujarat high court for "inaction and negligence" on its part during the 2002 post-Godhra riots that led to large-scale destruction of religious structures. A division bench of acting chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala made these observations, while ordering compensation for over 500 religious structures in the state.
A group of activists will mark the tenth anniversary of the Godhra carnage and the ensuing communal riots in Gujarat at the memorial at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28.
The Nanavati Commission has indicated it may submit its final report with regard to the 2002 post-Godhra riots by the end of March 2012, the state government told the Gujarat high court on Thursday.
Human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on Friday said she was prevented from delivering a lecture at the premier Indian Institute of Science as the administration cancelled the meeting at the last minute.
A local court in Ahmedabad acquitted 29 persons on Tuesday, accused in a 2002 riot case in Abasana village of Detroj taluka of the district, where six people of minority community were killed.
Some BJP workers in the area have expressed unhappiness over her candidature.
The top court said the faith of people in the efficacy of law is the saviour and succour for the sustenance of the rule of law.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to resume hearing on Thursday a clutch of petitions challenging the remission granted to all 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred to May 9 the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the remission granted to the 11 convicts last year in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of her family members during the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) will challenge before the Gujarat high court the recent acquittal of all 67 accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case by a special court, sources said.
On March 1, 2002, two days after the Godhra carnage, a mob attacked Best Bakery in Vadodara, looting and burning it down and killing 14 people. The mob targeted the Muslims inside, including the Shaikh family that ran the bakery.
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the high-powered Special Investigation Team to probe the role of 64 people, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the post Godhra-riots cases. The team has to submit its report to the apex court within three months.
The three were part of a crowd that attacked minorities in Madhavpura area of the city and brutally killed a pregnant woman.
The Supreme Court today asked the Special Investigating Committee, headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation director R K Raghavan, to consider whether further probe was required against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 52 others in the complaint filed by Jakia Jafri, widow of former Congress member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, who was burnt alive in post Godhra riots.
The Supreme Court on Monday quashed the Gujarat government's decision to grant remission to 11 convicts in the case of gangrape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven of her family members during the 2002 riots in the state, saying the orders were "stereotyped" and passed without application of mind.
Danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, noted Bengali litterateur Mahashweta Devi and ad guru Alyque Padamsee have sought an independent inquiry into the Gujarat riots.
Gujarat BJP leaders on Friday said if the physician-turned-politician, once a member of the powerful Narendra Modi ministry in the state and rising star in politics, wants to return to active politics, the saffron party will definitely assign work to her.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand to cooperate with the Gujarat Police in connection with a case filed against them over alleged misappropriation of funds.
Eleven convicts in the Godhra train burning case were on Tuesday handed down death sentence while 20 others were given life imprisonment by a special court in the 2002 incident that left 59 karsevaks dead and triggered riots which claimed over 1,200 lives in Gujarat.
Eleven convicts walked out of Godhra sub-jail after the Gujarat government allowed their release on August 15 this year.
Then minister of state for home Gordhan Jhadafiya was apparently referring to deaths in police firing in Bhavnagar: six persons died of which five were Hindus and one Muslim.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Wednesday a plea by social activist Teesta Setalvad challenging the Gujarat high court order which had rejected her plea for regular bail and directed her to surrender immediately in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
The CBI arrested 12 people, including a BJP worker, from Dahod district in Gujarat in connection with the gang rape of three women and the massacre of seven villagers during the post-Godhra communal riots in March 2002.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances