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06-08-2016, 12:58 AM
AHMEDABAD, India: Indian prosecutors sought the death penalty on Monday for 24 Hindus convicted over a massacre during religious riots in 2002 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of the state where it happened.
Judge P B Desai heard submissions from the prosecution as well as lawyers representing the 24 convicted over the killings, before adjourning final sentencing until Thursday.
The 24 were found guilty last week of playing a role in the massacre of 69 Muslims who were hacked and burnt to death as they sheltered at a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state.
It was one of the single worst massacres of the week-long violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in total.
Public prosecutor R.C Kodekar told the court on Monday some of the victims were women and children.
"The crime is rarest of the rare as the victims were hacked to death and then burnt by the accused," Kodekar told the court. "The victims were killed only because they belonged to the mi**rity community."
The accused had targeted in**cent people, so they must get the maximum punishment prescribed in law," Kodekar said.
Judge Desai last week convicted 11 people of murder and a**ther 13 of lesser offences following a years-long trial. A**ther 36 were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The judge also ruled the massacre at the Gulbarg Society complex was a spontaneous attack, rejecting claims of a pre-planned conspiracy against Muslims.
Defence lawyer Abhay Bharadwaj said the 24 should be given minimum sentences given the judge’s rejection of criminal conspiracy.
The riots have long dogged Modi, who has been accused of turning a blind eye to the violence.
The Hindu nationalist premier was cleared in 2012 by a Supreme Court-ordered investigation of any wrongdoing.
The violence was triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002, that was initially blamed on Muslims.
The 2002 Gujarat riots, also k**wn as the 2002 Gujarat violence and the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Following the initial incident there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three weeks; statewide, there were further outbreaks of communal riots against the mi**rity Muslim population for three months. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is believed to have triggered the violence.
Rupa Mody, whose teenage son went missing during the massacre and whose body was never found, said she has long prayed for justice.
“I don’t want any other mother to suffer the way I have as a mother who yearns for her son,” she told the NDTV network. “It hurts so much when your family is tormented and your house is destroyed.”
The trial over the massacre only began after the Supreme Court in 2009 ordered a reinvestigation into some of the worst incidents of the riots.
But one year later the same court issued a stay on any final verdict from the trial after a petition was filed seeking an inquiry into whether Modi and others played a role in the violence.The court only lifted its order last year when a lower court upheld a rejection of the petition.
In February 2002 a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire, killing at least 58 people. That incident was blamed on Muslims and ignited the communal violence that followed.
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Judge P B Desai heard submissions from the prosecution as well as lawyers representing the 24 convicted over the killings, before adjourning final sentencing until Thursday.
The 24 were found guilty last week of playing a role in the massacre of 69 Muslims who were hacked and burnt to death as they sheltered at a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad, in Gujarat state.
It was one of the single worst massacres of the week-long violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in total.
Public prosecutor R.C Kodekar told the court on Monday some of the victims were women and children.
"The crime is rarest of the rare as the victims were hacked to death and then burnt by the accused," Kodekar told the court. "The victims were killed only because they belonged to the mi**rity community."
The accused had targeted in**cent people, so they must get the maximum punishment prescribed in law," Kodekar said.
Judge Desai last week convicted 11 people of murder and a**ther 13 of lesser offences following a years-long trial. A**ther 36 were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The judge also ruled the massacre at the Gulbarg Society complex was a spontaneous attack, rejecting claims of a pre-planned conspiracy against Muslims.
Defence lawyer Abhay Bharadwaj said the 24 should be given minimum sentences given the judge’s rejection of criminal conspiracy.
The riots have long dogged Modi, who has been accused of turning a blind eye to the violence.
The Hindu nationalist premier was cleared in 2012 by a Supreme Court-ordered investigation of any wrongdoing.
The violence was triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002, that was initially blamed on Muslims.
The 2002 Gujarat riots, also k**wn as the 2002 Gujarat violence and the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Following the initial incident there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three weeks; statewide, there were further outbreaks of communal riots against the mi**rity Muslim population for three months. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is believed to have triggered the violence.
Rupa Mody, whose teenage son went missing during the massacre and whose body was never found, said she has long prayed for justice.
“I don’t want any other mother to suffer the way I have as a mother who yearns for her son,” she told the NDTV network. “It hurts so much when your family is tormented and your house is destroyed.”
The trial over the massacre only began after the Supreme Court in 2009 ordered a reinvestigation into some of the worst incidents of the riots.
But one year later the same court issued a stay on any final verdict from the trial after a petition was filed seeking an inquiry into whether Modi and others played a role in the violence.The court only lifted its order last year when a lower court upheld a rejection of the petition.
In February 2002 a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire, killing at least 58 people. That incident was blamed on Muslims and ignited the communal violence that followed.
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