Godhra case: 3 convicts get bail

The three were granted bail by a division bench of the High Court comprising Justices Akil Kureshi and R P Dholaria.

According to I H Syed,the convicts’ lawyer,they had based their petitions on the ground that Abdul Rehman Abdul Majid Dhantiya alias Kankatto,another convict in the case,was granted bail by the Supreme Court in April this year. Dhantiya was granted bail on the ground that he was arrested in 2002 and since then had been in jail. The apex court held that appeals were likely to take time to be heard.

“The case of the three convicts was similar to the one convict who was granted bail by the Supreme Court. The HC took this into account while granting bail to them,” Syed said.

A special trial court for the case had convicted 31 persons and acquitted 63 accused in 2011. Out of the 31 convicts,11 were condemned to death whereas 20 others were given life imprisonment.

The convicts were held guilty for setting the Sabarmati Express train on fire near Godhra Railway Station on February 27,2002. Fifty nine persons were killed in the in the carnage.

HC rejects seven convicts’ bail plea

The HC bench rejected the regular bail plea of seven other convicts in the case. The court refused their plea on the grou-nd that they had absconded at the relevant time and were not available for investigation. The court expressed apprehension that they might abscond again.