Six years on, trial yet to start

Two of the accused were bailed out, as one was HIV positive and the other suffered from bone tuberculosis. Those who died in jail are Fakruddin Musallman, Siraj Jamsa, Qutubuddin Ansari and Latif Rasul. Musallman and Rasul died of bone tuberculosis. Jamsa and Ansari died of paralysis.

Musallman died in Sabarmati jail in 2005, where the rest were bailed out due to deteriorating condition of the jail. In 2008, Mohammed Ansari and Idris Charkha got bail on health grounds.

Ibrahim Charkha and Salim Badam alias Panwalla, who fled to Pakistan, spoke to Newsline over phone. They claimed to be innocent and wanted to return to India, but said they could not trust the police to be fair to them.

Sources said another accused, Faroukh Bana, is also in Pakistan.

In August 2008, POTA court had allowed three of those convicted in the Godhra incident to visit their families as part of the parole, including Godhra advocate Ruhulamin Husain Hathila. The other two sent on parole for 24 hours are Shaukat Padriya and Rafi Ahmed Jamnu.