Indian court convicts 32 in 2002 religious riots

AHMADABAD: An Indian court convicted a former state government minister and 31 other people yesterday in connection with deadly anti-Muslim riots that shook the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
The violence, which killed more than 1,100 people, almost all Muslims, began after a train fire on Feb. 27, 2002, that killed 60 Hindu pilgrims. Hindu mobs, convinced Muslims set the fire, rampaged through towns and villages burning Muslim homes and businesses.
Rights groups and survivors have accused the state government, controlled by the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, of not doing enough to stop the violence and even stoking it.
The convictions yesterday, on charges ranging from rioting to murder, stemmed from an attack in Naroda Patiya, a small industrial town on the outskirts of Ahmadabad, Gujarat's capital, that killed 95 people.
Those convicted included Maya Kodnani, a state legislator at the time who later became minister of education and child welfare in the Gujarat government. She was arrested in 2009 on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy and has been in prison since.
The court, which acquitted 29 others, did not immediately announce the sentences or who was convicted of which crime.
The convictions were not the first linked to the rioting.
In July, a special court found 21 people guilty in the murders of 11 members of a Muslim family in the town of Visnagar and sentenced them to life in prison.
Last November, 31 Hindus were sentenced by the same court to life imprisonment for killing dozens of Muslims by setting a building on fire in the state's Mehsana district.
The courts are expected to issue verdicts in six other cases within a year.
Following India's independence and its bloody partition from Pakistan in 1947, relations between majority Hindus and Muslims have been largely peaceful, but there have been sporadic bouts of violence.
India confirms death penalty for Mumbai attacks gunman
India's Supreme Court yesterday confirmed the death sentence handed down to Muhammad Kasab, the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.
Pakistan-born Kasab, one of 10 gunmen who laid siege to India's financial capital in attacks that lasted nearly three days, had appealed against the sentence claiming that he had not received a fair trial.
“We are left with no option but to award death penalty,” the two judges said in a court order. “The primary and foremost offence committed by Kasab is waging war against the government of India.”
Kasab, who is currently held in a maximum-security prison in Mumbai, was found guilty on charges including waging war, murder and terrorist acts, and was sentenced to death in May 2010.
After losing his Supreme Court petition, Kasab is expected to lodge a final appeal for clemency with new President Pranab Mukherjee, who has another 11 cases to consider.
Only one execution has taken place in India in 15 years — that of a former security guard hanged in 2004 for the murder of a 14-year-old girl.
“The best possible points were put forward dispassionately on behalf of the accused,” state prosecutor Gopal Subramanium told reporters. “They have been considered and the court ultimately dismissed the appeal.”
Ujjwal Nikam, who led the case against Kasab throughout the trial process, called on the death sentence to be carried out “as soon as possible so that it gives a strong signal to terrorists.”
During the November 2008 attacks, heavily armed gunmen stormed targets in Mumbai including luxury hotels, a Jewish center, a hospital and a bustling train station.
India blames the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant organization for training, equipping and financing the gunmen with support from “elements” in the Pakistan military.
At his trial, the prosecution produced fingerprint, DNA, eyewitness and TV footage evidence showing him opening fire and throwing grenades at Mumbai's main railway station in the bloodiest episode of the attacks.
“I was denied a fair trial,” Kasab said in a statement when his appeal hearing began in January. “I may be guilty of killing people and carrying out a terrorist act but I am not guilty of waging war against the state.”