Roundup: Indian court sentences 11 to life in jail over 2002 communal riots of Gujarat

An Indian special court sentenced 11 people to life in jail on Friday for their role in a notorious massacre during the 2002 communal riots in the western state of Gujarat.

The court also handed down 10-year jail term to one person and seven years to 12 others who were convicted for lesser offences in the massacre at Gulbarg Society, a highrise apartment building.

During the sentencing, the special judge in the city of Ahmedabad also termed the Gulbarg Society massacre as the darkest day in the history of civic society.

Some 69 people, mostly Muslims, including former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri, had died in the Gulbarg Society massacre after Hindu mobs attacked and set the building on fire in February 2002.

Last week, the spcial court had convicted 24 out of the 66 accused in the case. While 36 people were acquitted for lack of evidence against them, five had died during trial and one is missing.

The court had, during course of the trial, however, rejected the charge of criminal conspiracy against all the 66 accused, which would have entailed death penalty for the convicts.

The slain Congress lawmaker's wife Zakia said that she was not satisfied with the verdict that convicted only 11 people for murder.

"All of them should have been punished because I know what they did. They must get the punishment as they killed people and destroyed their families. I saw them doing it with my own eyes," she said.

In fact, Gulbarg Society was one of several massacres during the communal riots in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed by Hindu mobs.

The riots were sparked by a fire on a train -- Sabarmati Express -- in which 60 Hindu pilgrims were charred to death at Godhra station in Gujarat.

Critics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the then chief minister of the state, accuse him of not acting during the riots.

However, Modi has denied any wrongdoing during the riots. Endit