GODHRA TRAIN BURNING AND ITS AFTERMATH.

 GODHRA INCIDENT.

On the morning of 27^th February 2002 the Sabarmati express train was travelling from Ayodhya to Ahmedabad carrying Karsevaks. It halted at the Godhra station 4 hours late at about 7.40 in the morning.  As the train started leaving the platform, it had to halt as the chain was pulled multiple times as per the statement of the driver which was shown by the instruments in his cabin. 4 bogies of the train were then attacked and burnt by a mob killing 59 people including 27 women and 10 children.

The Nanavati commission appointed immediately by the Gujarat Government on 6^th March 2002 itself, and it  gave Part-1 of its report in the year 2008, which stated that the train was set on fire by a pre-planned Muslim mob of 1000 people. The commission examined through 40,000 documents and took the testimonies of over 1000 witnesses to arrive at that conclusion.  

As per the Nanavati Commission, the train was attacked by a mob of 1000 people. After stone pelting 4 coaches of the train were set on fire in which the S-6 coach was completely burnt.

A study by the Gujarat Forensic laboratory concluded that the fire was caused by inflammable liquid poured into the coach by the attackers. It also said the fire started inside the coach.

In contrast a 1 man Banerjee commission set up by Laloo (who had then become Railway Minister) 2 and half year after the incident in 2004, , said the fire was an accident in its 2006 report itself. This report was set aside by the Gujarat High Court as unconstitutional, null and void.

This latter report which went into the incident 2 and half years after it actually happened is more political than anything else and it is quite obvious that it is cooked up. Circumstantial evidence clearly points to a Muslim mob.

Again the big difference between the commissions is that the Nanavati commission immediately investigated the incident while Laloos commission enquired about it 2 And half years after it took place. That again gives the Nanavati Commission more credence than to Laloos commission. Moreover the Nanavati Commission took 6 years to submit Part-1 of its report after going through voluminous evidence and statements by numerous witnesses, while the Banerjee Commission gave the report in just 2 years.   

A so called Concerned Citizens Tribunal concluded that the fire was an accident. As per that, one is led to conclude that the chain was pulled accidentally, it was also pulled multiple times accidentally and then the coaches also caught fire accidentally. This sounds like nonsense and nothing else. Did the people pull the chain and burn themselves? That sounds ludicrous. .

By 28^th February 2002, 51 people had been arrested in connection with the incident. In Feb 2011, the trial court convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 others for lack of evidence. Thereafter, the Gujarat High Court sentenced all those 31 people to life imprisonment.  

POST GODHRA COMMUNAL VIOLENCE.

On 28^th February, exactly one day after the Godhra incident, began a 3 day period of communal violence in Gujarat in protest against the Godhra train tragedy. There were further incidents of communal violence in some parts of Gujarat which continued for 3 months.  As per the official figures a total of 1044 people died which included 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus.

The then CM Modi was initially accused by many as not doing enough to control the violence. The SIT appointed by the Supreme Court, however has cleared Modi in 2012 and it has also rejected claims that the state government has not done enough to curb the violence. In April 2014, the SC expressed satisfaction over the SIT’s investigations in 9 cases related to the violence and rejected a plea contesting the SIT report citing it as baseless. Now both these events happened before Modi became the PM in May 2014.

The Communal riots in 1969 under the Congress government left 660 people dead of which 430 were Muslims. In the 1985 communal riots under another Congress government some 275 People were killed most of them Muslim. In Ahmedabad alone about 100 Muslims were killed.

So communal violence in Gujarat is nothing new, but since Modi happened to be a Hindu rightist, he was blamed by the Muslim groups and the Congress without any basis. 

As of April 2013, 249 convictions had been secured in the Gujarat violence of which 184  were Hindus and 65 were Muslims. 31 of the Muslim convictions were for the massacre of Hindus in Godhra before the post Godhra violence. That means in the post-Godhra violence only 34 Muslims were arrested.   

BILKIS BANO CASE. 

The Bilkis Bano case initially was a huge blot on law in India. She was a 5 months pregnant woman who fled her village when violence was sweeping over her region. She was accompanied by her husband and her 3 year old daughter and other family members. They were attacked by a group of 20-30 men armed with sickles, swords and stones. They killed 7 members of her family as well as her young daughter. 11 members of that gang raped her, her mother and 3 other women. Luckily Bilkis Bano survived the attack which is the reason why the issue not only got the country’s attention but also international attention. Despite that Police dismissed her case against the assailants. 

Then she moved to the Human Rights Commission and petitioned the SC to reopen the case. The SC handed over the investigation to the CBI which appointed a team of experts from the Central forensic Science laboratory (CFSL) and AIIMS to exhume the mass graves for identity and cause of death.  

The trial was also transferred from Gujarat to Maharashtra in the year 2004. Charges were filed against 19 people and 6 police officials and also a government doctor in the case in a Mumbai court. In 2008, 11 men were sentenced to life imprisonment and a policeman was sentenced for falsifying evidence.   

The Bombay High Court upheld the life imprisonment of the 11 men in May 2017. The court also set aside the acquittal of the 7 more men accused in the case and also the police officers and doctor. 

In April 2019, the DC ordered the Gujarat government to grant her Rs 50 lacs as compensation, a house and a government job. 

In March 2022 Radheshyam Bhagwandas Shah sought a remission of the sentence which he said is as per Gujarat’s policy. In August 2022, the 11 men imprisoned for life in the rape of Bilkis Bano were released by the Gujarat government. This action of the Gujarat government is patently absurd and reprehensible considering the vile crime that was committed by them.

After release they were garlanded and offered sweets which was absurd. 

Then 6000 signatories including intellectuals, filmmakers, and activists and so on have appealed to the SC. Finally it was in the tenure of Justice Chandrachud in January 2024 the remission granted to them was pronounced null and void and they were asked to surrender themselves to the Police.