Gulberg massacre: Court to announce sentence tomorrow

Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Court on Thursday deferred the judgement till Friday on the quantum of sentence for the 24 convicts in the Gulberg massacre case.

During the hearing, the defence said that the eight witnesses have not been able to recognize the convicts and on this basis, minimum punishment should be given.

Defence lawyer Abhay Bhardawaj said that the accused should be given a chance to reform as they don't have past criminal records.

"The prosecution needs to prove if the accused will be a threat to society if they step out of jail," he added.

The prosecution has sought nothing less than death sentence or jail term till death for all the convicts while the defence lawyers contested that the incident was spontaneous and there were enough provocations for it.

Read: Gulberg verdict: SC should step in

Last week, the court had turned down pleas moved by two accused -- Narayan Tank and Babu Rathod -- to conduct narco analysis and brain mapping tests on them to prove their innocence. The court maintained that it was not required when the verdict was imminent.

During the trial, riots victim's lawyer had argued that the massacre was a pre-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused to kill minority community members of the Gulberg Society.

Read: From Muzaffar to Vivek: Gulberg massacre victim’s transformation tale

The defence had refuted the conspiracy theory of prosecution and claimed that the mob resorted to violence only after slain Congress MP Eshan Jafri fired several rounds on them.

The Gulberg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court appointed SIT.

The incident had taken place a day after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra train station, where in 58 'karsevaks' were killed.