NEW DELHI, 23 February 2007 — Nearly 90 Muslim men accused of triggering one of India’s worst religious riots are to be allowed to seek bail after nearly five years in jail without trial, India’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
The 87 men were accused of starting a fire on a train in February 2002 in Godhra, a town in the western state of Gujarat, in which 59 Hindu pilgrims died, sparking a month of deadly communal violence.
They were charged and detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, but have remained behind bars even though the act was subsequently repealed. A government committee ordered that pending POTA trials in Gujarat be abandoned in favor of normal criminal proceedings, while Amnesty International and other human rights groups have condemned the continued detentions.
“This ruling means the first chance of liberty for persons who were wrongly put inside under this draconian regime,” Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer from the Delhi-based Human Rights Law Network, told Reuters outside the court.
The Supreme Court has said the state government led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party was complicit in the riots.
