Gujarat Riots: A Gujarat court has acquitted all 26 accused of gangrape and murder during the 2002 communal riots. All the accused were involved in the murder and gangrape of more than 13 people from the minority community in separate incidents in Kalol. During the hearing of the case, the court said that these people are being acquitted due to lack of evidence in the 20-year-old case.
A total of 39 people were arrested in this case. Thirteen of these people had died during the pendency of the case and the trial against them was dropped. At the same time, the remaining 26 people have also been acquitted. The court of Additional Sessions Judge Leelabhai Chudasama of Halol in Panchmahal district on Friday (March 31) acquitted these people for the offenses of murder, gangrape and rioting due to lack of evidence.
FIR was registered on March 2, 2002
The accused persons were part of the mob that went on a rampage in the communal riots that broke out on March 1, 2002, during a bandh call following the burning of the Sabarmati train at Godhra on February 27. An FIR was registered against the accused at Kalol police station on 2 March. A total of 190 witnesses and 334 documentary evidences were examined in the case but the court observed that there were contradictions in the statements of the witnesses.
Let me tell you, on March 1, 2002, a mob of more than 2,000 people belonging to two different communities started violence with sharp weapons in Kalol town of Gandhinagar district. They damaged shops and set them on fire. In another incident, 38 people coming from Delol village towards Kalol were attacked and 11 of them were burnt alive. A woman was gang-raped when she was trying to escape.
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