Godhra railway attack

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The railway attack in Godhra on 27 February 2002 was the arson attack on a train of the Indian Railways in the station Godhra Junction in Godhra , State of Gujarat , India . 59 people died. The attack was the initial spark for major unrest and riots in Gujarat , in which 1,000–2,000 people were killed.

Starting position

In February 2002, poured thousands of Hindu - pilgrims from Gujarat to Ayodhya God, worshipers Rama , also under the name Ramsevaks are known, and the fundamentalist movement Vishva Hindu Parishad are attributed to the ceremony Purnahuti Maha Yagna participate. Ayodhya is believed to be the birthplace of the god Rama. The birth is said to have taken place at the exact spot where the Babri Mosque had stood since 1528 . Supporters of Vishva Hindu Parishad demolished the mosque in 1992 and want to (re) build the Ram Janmabhumi temple on this site . The context of the following events are thus religiously charged and at the same time politically effective tensions.

About 2,000-2,200 Hindu pilgrims traveled back on the Sabarmati Express , which went to Ahmedabad . The train was four hours late when it reached Godhra station at 7:43 am, fully occupied. There he was expected by more than 1,500 Muslims. The departure of the train from the station failed because the emergency brake was pulled. He came to a stop before the exit signal .

Course of events

From the crowd at the station, stones were thrown at the train and an attempt was made to penetrate it. This was achieved, among other things, by the members of a group who had met in Godhra the previous evening and agreed to attack the train. They had obtained and stored 140 liters of petroleum . They managed to bring the appropriate container to the train and pour the liquid through a door into a car and immediately set it on fire - according to the forensic investigation . The car burned out, and three others also burned. Many travelers were no longer able to get out of the car, they burned.

consequences

Immediate consequences

59 people died and 48 were injured.

The attack sparked major unrest in Gujarat, in which 1,000–2,000 people were killed. Conspiracy theories also emerged , according to which the attack on the train was carried out so that riots could break out.

Until the day after the arson attack, 28 February 2002, 51 people were charged with arson , breach of the peace and looting arrested , including local politicians from Godhra that should have actively supported the attack.

Work-up

Because of the politically and religiously explosive nature of this attack, its reappraisal developed into a legal obstacle course that lasted for years. There are also considerable doubts about the statements made by the investigative commissions and the findings from the criminal proceedings.

Nanavati Shah Commission

The Gujarat government set up a commission of inquiry on March 6, 2002. It initially consisted entirely of one person, the retired former Gujarat High Court judge KG Shah. This and the close proximity of Shah to the Hindu nationalist politician Narendra Modi , then Chief Minister ( Prime Minister ) of Gujarat, met with considerable criticism from the victims, civil rights organizations and political parties. As a result, the commission was expanded to include the retired judge at the Supreme Court of India , GT Nanavati.

It took the commission six years to come to a conclusion. She evaluated 40,000 documents and heard 1,000 witnesses . KG Shah passed away in March 2008 just before the first report was published on April 6, 2008. The commission to the investigative commission was extended a total of 22 times. The second, final, report wasn't even available until June 2014. The reports found that a planned arson was the cause of the disaster. Since the report exonerated the Gujarat government in this respect, its veracity was doubted by the opposition and also by third parties.

Federal investigation

After the election victory of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the federal level on May 17, 2004, Lalu Prasad Yadav became Indian Minister of Railways. In September 2004 - two and a half years after the incident - he appointed Umesh Chandra Banerjee , a former judge in the Supreme Court of India , to investigate the incident. As early as January 2005 he came to the conclusion that it was an accident . This result was obviously a political target and an attempt to defuse tensions between the two religious groups. The attempt failed: a victim of the incident sued the government's use of the report in the Gujarat Supreme Court, which ruled the investigation unconstitutional, unlawful and void, classified it as a picture-perfect example of political interference with unfair intent, and found that they simply ignore the obvious evidence . The court banned the government from submitting the report to parliament.

Criminal trial

66 people from the crowd that attacked the train were first arrested in May 2002, but 107 people were ultimately charged. 57 of the original 66 suspects were accused of having been actively involved in the attack on the train, of having subsequently prevented the fire brigade from reaching the burning train and of having stormed the train afterwards. The 11 others were only accused of being part of the mob.

Of the 107 defendants in the end, 8 were young people whose proceedings were separated from the main proceedings and who were tried in separate youth criminal proceedings . 5 other defendants died during the trial.

In the criminal trial, 253 witnesses were heard and 1,500 documents were presented as evidence .

In November 2003, the Indian Supreme Court stayed the trial because it was unclear whether the charges were admissible under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (POTA). This intermediate proceeding dragged on until May 2005. The decision was against using the POTA in the proceedings. In May 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in this and 8 other cases involving politically motivated rioting that a verdict could not be pronounced. This second procedural interruption lasted until the beginning of 2011, when the ban was lifted. The court then set the date for the pronouncement of the verdict on February 22, 2011.

The court acquitted 63 defendants due to a lack of evidence . It sentenced 31 accused of murder and formation of a criminal organization , 11 of them death . These were those who had agreed to the night before the attack, and those that the petroleum in the passenger cars had poured and set on fire. The rest received life imprisonment . Both the convicted and the prosecutor went against the judgment in revision - unsuccessfully.

Movies

  • Chand Bujh Gaya , 2005, uses the Godhra arson attack as the backdrop for a love story.
  • Kai Po Che uses the Godhra arson attack as a backdrop for his main plot, which in turn is based on the novel The 3 Mistakes of My Life by Chetan Bhagat .
  • Final Solution is a documentary film about the Godhra arson attack and the subsequent riots in Gujarat.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ NN: Fifty-eight killed .
  2. ↑ State of Gujarat (Ed.): Report of Forensic Science Laboratory .
  3. ↑ NN: Fueling .
  4. ↑ Jahanara: Feminism .
  5. ^ Dozens arrested over India train attack . In: BBC News, February 28, 2002; NN: Chief suspect in India train attack arrested . In: BBC News of March 19, 2002.
  6. ^ Nussbaum: Values .
  7. ↑ Kishwar: Modes .
  8. ↑ NN: The Hindu .
  9. ↑ Jaffrelot: Communal Riots .
  10. ↑ Report of the Commission of Inquiry Consisting of Justice Nanavati and Justice Mehta , Part 1. 2008.
  11. ↑ See: NN: Nanavati panel .
  12. ↑ NN: With 21st extension .
  13. ↑ Jaffrelot: Communal riots , p 80; Uday: Godhra carnage ; NN: The Godhra conspiracy .
  14. ^ NN: Cong .
  15. ↑ Jaffrelot: Communal Riots .
  16. ↑ NN: Laloo flaunts Godhra report . In: The Tribune, January 20, 2005; NN: India train fire “not mob attack” . In: BBC News of January 17, 2005.
  17. ^ Union of India vs. Nilkanth Tulsidas Bhatia, LPA No. 364 of 2005 in SCA No. 16500 of 2005 .
  18. ^ NN: Banerjee panel illegal: Gujarat HC . In: The Indian Express of October 13, 2006; NN: Bannerjee Committee illegal: High Court . In: The Hindu of October 14, 2006; NN: HC terms Sabarmati Express panel illegal . In: The Financial Express of October 14, 2006; Press Trust of India: Banerjee panel illegal: Gujarat HC . In: Express India of October 13, 2006; NN: BJP cheers as HC slams Godhra panel . In: IBN Live .
  19. ^ NN: Chargesheet filed against 66 Godhra accused . In: The Indian Express of May 23, 2002; NN: Charge sheet filed against 66 accused for Godhra mayhem . In: Rediff .
  20. ↑ Manas Dasgupta: Chargesheets filed in Godhra train carnage case . The Hindu dated May 24, 2002.
  21. ↑ NN: Godhra train carnage judgment tomorrow ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Live India from February 21, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / liveindia.tv
  22. ↑ NN: Eleven sentenced to death for India Godhra train blaze . BBC News of March 1, 2011.
  23. ↑ NN: It was not a random attack on S-6 but kar sevaks were targeted, says judge . In: The Hindu of March 6, 2011; NN: Godhra verdict: 31 convicted, 63 acquitted . In: DTV of March 1, 2011; NN: Special court convicts 31 in Godhra train burning case ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Live India from February 22, 2012; NN: Key accused let off in Godhra case . In: Mid Day of February 23, 2011; Jason Burke: Godhra train fire verdict prompts tight security measures . In: The Guardian, February 22, 2011; NN: Godhra verdict: 31 convicted, 63 acquitted . In: NDTV from March 1, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / liveindia.tv
  24. ↑ NN: Guj govt challenges acquittals in Godhra verdict before HC . In: The Indian Express of June 25, 2011.
  25. ↑ NN: Gujarat violence film set for Friday release . In: indiaglitz.com of March 2, 2005.

Coordinates: 22 ° 46 ′ 36.4 "  N , 73 ° 36 ′ 22.1"  E