His son Rajesh got charred to death in the torched bogie and his daugher-in-law Chanda walked away with the compensation and two grand daughters, leaving her then six-year-old son Jatin in his grandfather's care.
The 74-year-old R K Shah speaks about why he quit as a special public prosecutor, the problems he faced in trying to get the accused convicted and whether there is eveidence against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in the case.
The Gujarat government has granted yet another extension of six months to the Nanavati Commission, probing the 2002 post-Godhra riots, officials said on Tuesday.
Gujarat was labelled Hindutva's crucible and Modi was to become the chief 'chemist'. A revealing political saga excerpted from Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay's The Demolition, the Verdict and the Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project.
The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice U C Banerjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi after a Cabinet meeting.
Ehsan Jafri was killed during the riots. Zakia Jafri, his wife, had filed the petition challenging the special investigation team's report giving a clean chit to Modi and 63 others.
'The cases on hand have no genesis in the act of terrorism or waging war against the state,' the court said.
Possible chinks in the Gujarat government's "conspiracy theory" were on Tuesday pointed out to the Godhra inquiry commission, which is in the final stages of hearing events associated with the burning of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002.
Apart from the Naroda Gam case, seven other 2002 post-Godhra riots cases were investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team.
By polarising the Hindu vote, the expose might help the BJP and Modi, but in the long run, it will dent Modi's credibility.
A special court in Gujarat on Thursday acquitted all the 67 accused, including former Bharatiya Janata Party minister Maya Kodnani, in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case in which 11 people were killed.
Maulana Hussain Umarji was arrested at Signal Falia near the Godhra railway station.
The incident of burning S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, which triggered off violent riots in Gujarat, was a pre-planned conspiracy and not an accident, according to the first part of the Godhra Commission report.
The BJP alleges that the U C Banerjee Committee Report, which described the train fire as an accident, was made public with an eye on the polls.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Gujarat government to constitute within 10 days a special investigation team to re-investigate 14 cases pertaining to the post-Godhra communal riots. A bench headed by Justice Arjit Pasayat said the SIT would submit its report in a sealed cover to the court in 3 months.
Ahmed, a former Samajwadi Party MP, has been lodged in the Sabarmati central jail since June 2019. He was shifted there following a Supreme Court after he was accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and assault on real estate businessman Mohit Jaiswal while in prison in UP.
Dr Singh on Wednesday said Lalu would not be asked to resign "for now".
According to the sources, the three accused had admitted the accident was caused by their mistake and they had not informed the higher-ups about the non-functioning of the traffic signal system.
Superintendent of Police Anoop Singh Gehlot said his statement will be recorded later in the day.
Sadhvi Meenakshi Devi, who deposed before the commission on Tuesday, did not turn up.
Praveen Togadia has said that it metes out injustice.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that the party had been maintaining from day one that the fire, which killed 57 kar sewaks returning from Ayodhya, was not the handiwork of a particular community but an accident.
Togadia also urged the Nitish Kumar-led government to take immediate steps to check ISI activities and make concerted efforts to tone up the administration to tackle the law and order problem.
Their clarification came after some media reports said an unused railway coach was on Sunday set ablaze at Pratapnagar station in Vadodara during the enactment of the Godhra train burning incident.
The car was subjected to several physical tests and various aspects concerning the nature of the damage on its body and interiors would be investigated, the police said.
"The signal was off. The signal maintainer and his helper came and then ran away. It means it is their mistake," Ansari said.
The committee headed by Justice U C Banerjee, which probed the Sabarmati Express blaze, had said in the report the fire was 'accidental'.
Fifty-nine 'karsevaks' were killed in the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002, triggering the worst communal riots in the history of Gujarat.
The results of the report are too therefore politically motivated," Javadekar said. The BJP, he added, was instead waiting for a court verdict on the Godhra train fire.
Sources said the commission has completed the hearing of the matter related to the burning of the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express train on February 27, 2002.
In an interview to Financial Times, the prime minister also expressed 'disappointment' with Pakistan's failure to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism.
'The lesson you taught was that you will free the murderers of Bilkis' three-year-old daughter. You also taught us that Ahsan Jafri can be killed. You taught the lesson of Gulbarga bakery, you taught the lesson of Best bakery lesson'
The commission will visit the Godhra railway station and inspect the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express during its one-day visit.
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