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Godhra riots: Guj court gives life imprisonment to 8: IBNLive.com > Videos





JUSTICE AT LAST: Madinabi’s house in Eral, Gujarat was attacked by a mob in 2002.

Godhra riots: Guj court gives life imprisonment to 8

Prachi Jatania / CNN-IBN

Published on Tuesday , October 30, 2007 at 23:46

Ahmedabad, India: Madinabi Sheikh has had to wait a long time for justice. On March 2, 2002, in the thick of the communal riots following the Godhra carnage, Madinabi’s house in Eral, Gujarat was attacked by a mob.

Madinabi was hiding with her family in some fields nearby. But the mob found seven of them and as Madinabi watched, five of her relatives were hacked to death, her niece Shamima and daughter Shabana gangraped and killed and their bodies torched.

Five-and-a-half years later, the killers are finally being punished, but Madinabi says it's not enough.

“I haven’t got justice. I fought the case for the past five years and only 11 of the 40 accused have been punished. I will appeal to the High Court to grant them death sentence,” Madinabi said.

A local BJP leader Chandradeep Parmar is one of the eight given life terms. The Godhra court has also sentenced three others to three years in prison on charges of looting and violence.

The court questioned many VHP and Bajrang Dal activists for allegedly provoking the mobs. However, 29 people have been let off for lack of adequate evidence.

Meanwhile, Defence Counsel Rajendra Trivedi said, “We have full faith that High Court will acquit all of them.”

But the families of those who were killed that day say they will appeal the acquittal in the High Court soon.