Gujarat to press death penalty on Godhra train burning convicts

New Delhi: In the 2002 Godhra train burning case, the Gujarat government submitted before the Supreme Court on Monday that it wanted the death penalty for 11 convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by Gujarat High Court, PTI reported.

"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 the rarest of rare cases where 59 people, including women and children, were burnt alive," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Gujarat government, told the bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala.

"It is consistent everywhere that the bogey was locked from the outside. Fifty-nine died, including ladies and children," Mehta said.

The law officer explained that 11 convicts were sentenced to death by the trial court, and 20 others were granted life terms in the case. Mehta said that the state high court had upheld a total of 31 convictions in the case and commuted the death penalties of the 11 convicts to life term.

The SC bench fixed the bail pleas of several accused in the case for hearing after three weeks. It asked counsel for both sides to file a consolidated chart giving details such as actual sentences awarded to them and the period spent in jail till now.

On February 27, 2002, 59 people were killed when the S-6 coach of the train was burnt at Gujarat's Godhra, triggering riots in the state.