The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to eight Godhra tragedy convicts while denying relief to four others on death sentences.
“We direct that the convicts be released on bail subject to such terms and conditions as may be imposed by the sessions court,” the bench said.
A bench of CJI D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice P.S. Narasimha granted bail to eight prisoners according to the conditions imposed by the Sessions Court.
The convicts who were granted bail are – – Abdul Sattar Ibrahim Gaddi Asla, Yunus Abdul Hakk Samol, Mohammad Hanif Abdulla Moulvi Badam, Abdul Rauf Abdul Majid Isa, Ibrahim Abdulrazak Abdul Sattar Samol, Ayub Abdul Gani Ismail Pataliya, Soheb Yusuf Ahmed Kalandar and Suleman Ahmad Hussain
The top court, however, refused to grant bail to four convicts – Anwar Mohammad Mehda, Saukat Abdulla Moulvi Ismail Badam, Mehboob Yakub Mitha and Siddik Mohammad Mora- after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed their applications highlighting their role in the incident.
On 20 February of this year, the Court had sought details about the convicts, including their age and time served in jail, to help it decide their bail applications moved by them.
The Gujarat government, represented by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, had expressed strong opposition to the Gujarat High Court’s 2017 decision to commute 11 prisoners’ death sentences to life imprisonment.
Mehta informed the Court that the trial court had sentenced 20 convicts to life in prison and 11 convicts to death. According to him, the High Court later remitted the death penalty for the 11 convicted to life imprisonment.
According to Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, some of the inmates are now in their 60s. Hegde also left it up to the Court to decide whether the death penalty should be maintainable or not against the 11 convicts who were previously given punishment by the trial court.
Last December, the Supreme Court granted bail to one of the 31 convicts in the February 2002 Godhra train burning.
The Godhra train burning ignited communal riots in Gujarat, killing roughly 2,000 people.SC grants bail to 8 convicts in Godhra train burning case
