A juvenile, now about 35 years old, who was part of a riotous mob, holding petrol in a five-litre plastic can and searching for ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri during the Gulberg Society Massacre in the 2002 post-Godhra riots, was found guilty by a juvenile justice board (JJB).
The board has ordered him three months of community service at a civil hospital as his punishment for being a minor at the time of the offence and fined him Rs 15,000. The board acquitted three other juveniles for want of evidence against them.
Principal magistrate of JJB, D A Jadav pronounced the judgment on March 30 finding one of the juveniles guilty of illegal assembly, arson, murder, criminal conspiracy, among other offences. The board has also directed the legal probation officer to file reports on the convict's conduct twice for a year.
The board’s order on finding one of the juveniles guilty is largely based on eye witness account of Saira Sandhi one of the survivors of Gulberg Society massacre. The board relied upon her statement recorded in 2008 before Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The guilty juvenile was first picked up by the SIT only in 2008 while the three who have been acquitted were arrested in March, May and June 2002 by the local police respectively.
The order quotes Sandhi's testimony of having watched the mayhem from the house of Jafri under attack. She had said that she identified the juvenile who was carrying the plastic can with petrol.
In all, 69 people including Jafri were burnt to death on February 28, 2002. In 2016, a special trial court convicted 11 persons for murder while 13 were awarded lesser punishment.
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