Godhra train burning

Godhra train burning
File:Godhra Train Burning Image.jpg
Location	Godhra, Gujarat, India
Coordinates	22°45′48″N 73°36′22″E
Date	27 February 2002; 07:43 am
Target	Hindu Pilgrims
Deaths	58
Injured	43

The Godhra Train Burning was an incident that occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002, in which 58 people including 25 women and 15 children died in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express train near the Godhra railway station in the Indian state of Gujarat. Many of the victims were Hindu pilgrims and activists who were returning from the holy city of Ayodhya after a religious ceremony on the site of Babri Masjid ( formerly a Hindu Temple) of Ayodhya. The official commission set up to investigate the train burning spent 6 years thoroughly going over the details of the case, and concluded that the fire was arson committed by a mob of 1000-2000 people, mainly Muslims. A court convicted 31 Muslims for the incident and the conspiracy for the crime,although the actual causes of the fire have yet to be proven conclusively.

The event is widely perceived as the trigger for the violence that followed, which resulted in widespread loss life, destruction of property and homelessness. Estimates of casualties range from the official figures of 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus to upwards of 2000 individuals.

Background

Godhra is a province with a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims. The Partition of India sparked a series of riots between the communities. In 1980, five Hindus, including two children, were killed in the Signal Falia neighbourhood near the Godhra Railway yard. In 1985, communal disturbances continued for more than five months between February and July 1985 and the region remained under curfew for about a year. In November 1990, four Hindu teachers at the Vorwad Saphia Madrasa School, including two women, were killed.

27 February 2002 incident

Godhra Junction station where the incident took place

In February 2002, thousands of devotees of the Hindu God Ram (known as "Ramsevaks") had gone from Gujarat to Ayodhya at the behest of the Vishva Hindu Parishad to take part in a ceremony called the Purnahuti Maha Yagna. On 25 February 2002, 2000 – 2200 Ramsevaks boarded the Sabarmati Express which was bound for Ahmedabad. On 27 February 2002, the train made its scheduled stop at Godhra about 4 hours late, at 7:43 am. As the train started leaving the platform, someone pulled the emergency chain and the train stopped near the signal point. The driver of the train subsequently stated that the chain had been pulled multiple times, judging by the instruments in his cabin. The train was subsequently attacked by a mob of around 2000 people. Four coaches of the train were set alight, trapping many people inside. 58 people were burnt to death, and 43 others were injured. According to J Mahapatra, additional director general of Gujarat police, "miscreants had kept the petrol-soaked rags ready for use much before the train had arrived at the Godhra". However, historians such as Martha Nussbaum have challenged this narrative, stating that multiple inquiries have found that the conflagration was an accident rather than a planned conspiracy.

Inquires

Nanavati-Shah commission

On 6 March 2002 the Gujarat government set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the incident and submit a report, the chairman and sole member of which was retired Gujarat High Court judge K G Shah. However, Shah's alleged closeness to Narendra Modi generated fierce criticism from the victims, Human Rights organisations, and political parties, and led to a demand for the appointment of a Supreme Court judge to the commission. As a result, the government reconstituted the commission into a two member committee, appointing retired Supreme Court judge G T Nanavati to lead the commission, which thus became known as the "Nanavati-Shah Commission." Shah passed away in March 2008, just a few months prior to the committee submitting its first report, and the Gujarat High Court then appointed retired judge Akshay Kumar Mehta to the committee on 6 April 2008. The commission, during its six-year probe, examined more than 40,000 documents and the testimonies of more than 1,000 witnesses. The initial term of the committee was three months long; however, by December 2013 it had received 20 extensions, with the final report yet to have been submitted.

In September 2008, the commission submitted its preliminary report, in which it supported the conspiracy theory originally propounded by the Gujarat police. Maulvi Husain Haji Ibrahim Umarji, a cleric in Godhra, and a dismissed Central Reserve Police Force officer named Nanumiyan were presented as the "masterminds" behind the operation. The evidence marshalled by the committee in favour of this conclusion was a statement made by Jabir Binyamin Behra, a criminal in custody at the time, although he later denied giving any such statement. In addition, the alleged acquisition of 140 litres of petrol hours before the arrival of the train and the storage of said petrol at the guest house of Razzak Kurkur, accused of being a key conspirator, as well as forensic evidence showing that fuel was poured on the train coach before it burnt, was presented by the committee. The report concluded that the train was attacked by thousands of Muslims from the Signal Falia area.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Indian National Congress both objected to the exoneration of the Gujarat government by the commission citing the timing of the report (with general elections months away) as evidence of unfairness. Congress spokesperson Veerappa Moily commented at the strange absolvement of the Gujarat government for complacency for the carnage before the commission's second and final report had been brought out. The CPI(M) said that the report reinforced communal prejudices. The commission has been heavily criticised by academics such as Christophe Jaffrelot for obstructing the course of justice, supporting the conspiracy theory too quickly, and for allegedly ignoring evidence of governmental complicity in the incident.

Banerjee investigation

On 17 May 2004, with the victory of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the Indian general election, Lalu Prasad Yadav was appointed railway minister. In September 2004, two and half years after the train burning, Yadav appointed former Supreme Court Justice Umesh Chandra Banerjee to investigate the incident. In January 2005 Banerjee presented his report, which concluded that the fire was accidental. He cited a forensic report stating that the injuries on the victims were only compatible with an internal fire. The report was also critical of the railways' handling of the evidence relevant to the case.

Banerjee's findings were challenged by in the Gujarat High Court by Neelkanth Tulsidas Bhatia, who was injured in the incident. In October 2006, the court quashed the conclusions of Banerjee and ruled that the investigation was "unconstitutional, illegal and null and void", declared its formation to be a "colourable exercise of power with mala fide intentions", and its argument of accidental fire "opposed to the prima facie accepted facts on record."

Trial and court verdict

Prevention of Terrorism Act and trial

The Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance was invoked against all the accused which was later suspended due to pressure from the Central government. In May 2003, the first charge sheet was filed against 54 accused, but they were not charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA became an Act as it was cleared by Parliament). In February 2003, the POTA was re-invoked against all the accused after the BJP was elected in the elections again.

In November 2003, Supreme Court of India put a stay on the trial. In 2004, the POTA was repealed after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power, prompting it to review the invocation of the POTA against the accused. In May 2005, the POTA review commission decided not to charge the accused under POTA. This was later unsuccessfully challenged by a relative of the victim before the Gujarat High Court and later on appeal before Supreme Court. In September 2008, the Nanavati Commission submitted its report on the incident. In 2009, after accepting the report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed by it, the court appointed a special fast-track court to try the case along with 5 other fast track courts established to try the post-incident riots. The bench hearing the case also said that public prosecutors should be appointed in consultation with the SIT chairman. It ordered that the SIT would be the nodal agency for deciding about witness protection and also asked that it file supplementary charge sheets and that it may cancel the bail of the accused. More than 100 people were arrested in relation to the incident. The court was set up inside the Sabarmati Central Jail, where almost all of the accused were confined. The hearing began in May 2009. Additional Sessions Judge P R Patel was designated to hear the case. According to the chargesheet which run for over 500 pages, filed by the SIT before first class railway magistrate P K Joshi, 59 people were killed in the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express when an unidentified mob of around 1540 people attacked it near Godhra railway station. The 68 accused figure in the chargesheets, included 57 in the first case of stoning and torching the train and 11 in the second case when the mob attacked the police, prevented the fire brigade from approaching the burning train and stormed the train for a second time. Initially 107 people were charged, of which five died during the pendency of the case. Eight others were juveniles, who were tried by a separate court. As many as 253 witnesses were examined during the trial and over items of 1500 documentary evidences were presented to the court.

In May 2010, Supreme Court restrained the trial courts from pronouncing judgement in nine sensitive riot cases, including Godhra train incident. The trial was completed in September 2010; however, the verdict could not be delivered because of the Supreme Court stay. The stay was lifted in January 2011 and the judge announced that he shall pronounce the judgement on 22 February 2011.

Court verdict

On February 2011, the trial court convicted 31 people and acquitted 63 others, saying the incident was a “pre-planned conspiracy". The convictions were based on murder and conspiracy provisions of the Sections 302 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code respectively and under Sections 149, 307, 323, 324, 325, 326, 332, 395, 397, and 436 of the Code and some sections of the Railway Act and Police Act. The death penalty was awarded to 11 convicts, particularly those it believed were present at a meeting, held the previous night, where the conspiracy was formed, and those who, the court said, had actually entered the coach and poured petrol before setting it afire. Twenty were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Maulvi Saeed Umarji, who was believed by the SIT to be the prime accused, was acquitted along with 62 other accused for lack of evidence. The convicted filed appeals in the Gujarat High Court. The state government also challenged the trial court's decision to acquit 61 persons in the High Court and sought death sentences for 20 convicts awarded life imprisonment in the case.

Reactions to verdict

BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain stated, "The theory propagated by the (central) government and some NGOs (Non-Governmental Organization) has been proved wrong...." Law Minister Veerappa Moily (a Congress Party member) said it was premature to comment and that the courts will take their own course. R K Raghavan, who was the head of the Special Investigating Team, said he was satisfied with the verdict. BJP spokesperson, Ravi Shankar Prasad said the verdict had exposed the nefarious designs of the UPA government which tried to cover up the entire episode.

Popular culture

• Chand Bujh Gaya, a 2005 film, uses the Godhra train burning incident as the background for a love story.
• The 2013 film Kai Po Che had the Gujarat riots as a backdrop for the main narrative. The film was based on the novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life written by Chetan Bhagat.
• The 2003 Documentary Final Solution depicts the train burning and the Gujarat riots that followed.

See also

• Religious violence in India
• 2002 Gujarat Violence
• Dabgarwad Massacre
• Best Bakery case
• Naroda Patiya massacre