New Delhi: Law Minister Veerappa Moily
Tuesday said the Gujarat court's judgement in the Godhra case
does not justify the riots that followed the train burning
incident.
"Judgement does not justify the riots that followed
after (train burning) it," Moily told reporters outside
Parliament.
Eleven convicts in the Godhra train burning case were
today handed down death sentence while 20 others were given
life imprisonment by a special court in the 2002 incident
that left 59 karsevaks dead. The incident triggered riots
which left over 1200 dead in Gujarat.
"How can you justify that... trial of those (riot)
cases has to go on independently and culprits have to be
punished," he said.
Asked to comment on BJP's statement that the order has
laid to rest the theory that everything was instigated by the
Narendra Modi government, Moily said, "I am not going to
comment on that...there are differing reports of the
commissions. Nanavati Commission is yet to give a report.
There are other reports like Justice Mukherjee report. I do
not want to get into it."
However, he said, "There is an appeal. We have to
abide by that."
Welcoming the verdict, BJP leader Balbir Punj said,
"This is a good judgement. The conspiracy to defame the
Gujarat government was put to rest. Allegation that the bogey
was put on fire by Karsevaks itself to engineer the riot was
proved as false allegation."
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, March 01, 2011, 15:09