Ahmedabad,
The Gujarat High Court has commuted the death sentence into life imprisonment to 11 convicted by the trial court in the Godhra train carnage.

All other orders of the trial court remained unaltered, including life imprisonment for 20 others, acquittal of 63 accused and the acquittal posthumously of Maulana Umarji, who the prosecution originally projected as the “kingpin of the conspiracy” to attack the Vishwa Hindu Parishad kar sevaks travelling in S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express just outside the Godhra railway platform.

The court also passed strictures against the then state government, which was headed as the chief minister by the present PM Narendra Modi, and the railway administration for “failure” to maintain the law and order and awarded compensation of Rs10 lakh to the next of kin of the victims in the train carnage.

The High Court verdict evoked immediate protests from VHP international president Pravin Togadia who demanded the state government approach the Supreme Court. He said he expected the court to award death sentence even to those who were left out by the trial court and instead “even the 11 escape the gallows after committing such a heinous crime”, he said.

Togadia said the High Court judgment showed that the Hindus could not expect to get justice in Gujarat. “It is an insult to the souls of the 59 victims of the train carnage and must be challenged in the higher court,” he said. The advocate of the carnage victims Vijay Patel, however, said he would approach the Supreme Court against the High Court’s verdict.