Indian court acquits all 70 accused in 2002 post-Godhra riots case

Rights groups say 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed as revenge for deaths of nearly 60 Hindus in a train fire

GUJARAT: All 70 people accused in the 2002 post-Godhra riots, which took place in India's Seshan Nava village, have been acquitted by a court in Gujarat's Banaskantha district on account of lack of evidence, The Hindu reported.

The March 2, 2002 riots lead to the death of 14 Muslims, while two locals from the Hindu community were killed in police firing.

Addition Sessions Judge V K Pujara acquitted the accused on grounds that the prosecutions had not presented sufficient evidence on record to prove their involvement as part of the mob-participated killings.

“Eye-witnesses in the case turned hostile and the total 109 oral witnesses did not give names of the accused and did not support the complainant’s case,” additional public prosecutor D V Thakor told The Hindu.

During the course of the trial, eight of the accused died. Thakor said that 12 supplementary charge sheets were filed in this case.

According to the prosecutor's, an armed mob of around 5,000 people laid siege to the village in March 2002, in the aftermath of the Sabarmarti Express train burning. The mob killed 14 persons of the Baloch Muslim community, including children.

The violence in Gujarat was triggered by the deaths of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims in a February 2002 train fire that was at first blamed on a mob.

Hindus hungry for revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods across Gujarat in an orgy of violence that marked some of India’s worst religious riots since independence from Britain in 1947.

Human rights groups say more than 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were hacked, beaten or burned to death.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – who was the then chief minister of Gujrat -- was widely criticised for failing to stop the riots.

He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.