2002 Gujarat Riots: Death penalty of 11 people commuted to life in prison

An Indian court yesterday commuted the death sentences of 11 men convicted of causing a 2002 train fire that sparked anti-Muslim riots in which more than 1,000 people were killed.

The 11 men, all Muslims, will instead face life in jail for causing the fire that killed 59 Hindu passengers and set off some of the worst religious violence to hit India since independence.

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They were among 31 men convicted in 2011 who lodged an appeal at the High Court in the western state of Gujarat, where the fire and subsequent violence occurred, according to AFP.

"The court has commuted the death sentences for 11 convicted to life imprisonment," public prosecutor Eknath Ahuja told AFP after the appeal hearing.

The court upheld life imprisonment for 20 others convicted in the case, he said.

The court observed that the state government and railways had failed to maintain law and order, which resulted in the 59 deaths. It ordered the state and the railways to pay Rs 10 lakh to the nearest kin of the victims of the carnage within six weeks. The court junked appeals challenging the acquittal of 63, including "mastermind" Maulana Hussain Umarji. He died in 2011 after being acquitted by the trial court, reports The Times of India.

Yusuf Hoka, a relative of one of the convicts who had their sentence commuted, expressed relief following the court order.

"But we will have to see the order for details," Hoka said. "Most of the death convicts have already spent over 15 years in jail."

Hindu mobs hungry for revenge over the fire rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in towns and villages across the state of Gujarat during a week of bloodshed in 2002.

Gujarat's Hindu nationalist government was accused of tacitly supporting the revenge attacks, which survivors said could have been avoided if police had arrived on time.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the state's chief minister at the time, was accused of turning a blind eye to the violence.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing in 2012 by a Supreme Court-ordered investigation.