Supreme Court grants bail to eight accused in 2002 Godhra train-burning case

While 11 convicts were sentenced to death, 20 others were sent to life imprisonment by the trial court. The HC had upheld 31 convictions in the case while commuting the death penalties and some of them moved the Supreme Court seeking bail till the disposal of their appeals against their conviction and sentence.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala on Monday said that there was a need to create a distinction for efficiently dealing with the batch of bail pleas of convicts, besides the appeals of the state government against the commutation of the death penalty into life term.

At the outset, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government, said, “We will be seriously pressing for the award of the death penalty to the convicts whose death penalties were commuted into life imprisonment (by the Gujarat High Court). This is a rarest of rare case where 59 people, including women and children, were burnt alive."

"It is consistent everywhere that the bogie (coach) was locked from the outside. This is not a simple case of stone pelting. Fifty-nine died, including ladies and children," he added.

On March 24, the top court said it would dispose of the bail applications of the Godhra convicts on the next date of hearing of the matter.

Prior to the eight granted bail on Friday, the top court had already granted bail to two convicts in the case.

The court issued notice to the state government on the bail pleas of Abdul Rahman Dhantia alias Kankatto and Abdul Sattar Ibrahim Gaddi Asla, among others.

The state government, on the other hand, said it was not "merely a stone pelting" case as the convicts had bolted a coach of the Sabarmati Express, leading to the death of several passengers on the train.

On December 15, 2022, the top court granted bail to one Faruk, who was serving a life sentence in the case and noted that he had been in jail for 17 years.

Faruk, along with several others, was convicted for pelting stones at a coach of the train.