13 years on, Godhra carnage accused, working as auto driver in MP, held

Ahmedabad: Hussain Suleman Mohan, an accused in the 2002 Sabarmati Express train burning incident, was working as an auto driver when he was arrested from Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh by the Godhra Local Crime Branch (LCB).

The 35-year-old was arrested by LCB from Jhabua on Wednesday on the basis of a a specific tip-off, Police Inspector of Godhra LCB DJ Chavda said.

"Suleman has been on the run after the 2002 Godhra train burning incident. Recently, we learnt that he is hiding in Jhabua, where he has settled and become an auto driver. We nabbed him yesterday and handed him over to the Special Investigating Team (SIT) here today," Chavda said on Thursday.

This is the second wanted accused of train carnage case who has been nabbed by the Godhra LCB within a week.

On July 16, the LCB had nabbed Kadir Abdul Gani from Godhra town and handed him over to SIT, he said.

Fifty-nine persons had lost their lives when the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was torched at Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002. The incident had triggered large scale riots in the state in which around 1,000 people, mostly of minority community, were killed.

In February 2011, a special court had convicted 31 persons for the train burning incident. Out of the 31, eleven were awarded death penalty, while 20 were given life term.

(With PTI inputs)