The special court that sentenced 31 people for burning 33 Muslims to death in Sardarpura, Gujarat, did not find enough evidence to support the prosecution’s conspiracy theory. This was one of the reasons the defence argued successfully for life sentences for its clients, held guilty of murder and rioting. Principal judge S C Srivasatava’s 1,024-page judgment explained why seven incidents from 2002 — some of which the prosecution cited in 2008...

-The Indian Express   Almost a decade after the Gujarat riots of 2002, the first verdict in the nine post-Godhra cases monitored by the Supreme Court has been pronounced, and 31 people have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court for the deaths of 33 Muslims at Sardarpura village in Mehsana district. Among the victims were 17 women and 11 children. When the court lifted the stay on the trials...

-The Times of India Given the impunity generally enjoyed by perpetrators of communal violence, the imposition of life sentence on 31 rioters for burning alive 33 Muslim victims in Sardarpura in the 2002 Gujaratriots is a milestone in India's history. If the signal goes out that those responsible for heinous communal massacres do not enjoy immunity from prosecution, that in itself will have a salutary effect in curbing their incidence. It's...

Call records lend weight to Sanjiv Bhatt's claimed presence at meeting with Modi Telephone records accessed by The Hindu lend credence to a crucial affidavit filed by a journalist backing senior police officer Sanjiv Bhatt's claim to have attended the controversial 2002 meeting at Narendra Modi's residence where the Gujarat Chief Minister allegedly said Hindus should be allowed to vent their anger against Muslims in the wake of the Godhra carnage. The...

These lend weight to journalist's affidavit to Supreme Court on meeting with the police officer The call records of Gujarat IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and former BBC correspondent Shubhranshu Chaudhary show they spoke to each other in Ahmedabad thrice on the evening of February 27, 2002, just before Mr. Bhatt says he went off to attend a meeting at the Gujarat Chief Minister's residence in which Narendra Modi allegedly asked police...