The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday granted bail to convicted Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Atul Vaidya in the Gulbarg Society massacre case. The VHP leader who sentenced to seven years imprisonment in June, 2016, was granted regular bail.
Earlier in the week, a special court had sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment, 12 to seven years and another to 10 years in jail in connection with the case in which 69 people were killed. The special investigation court on June 2 found 24 people guilty, 11 of them of murder in the 14-year-old case. The trial began in 2009.
Among the victims was former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri whose wife alleged the then chief minister Narendra Modi and several others for orchestrating the riots. Modi and others were given a clean chit by the Supreme Court appointed-Special Investigation Team.
A division bench led by Justice Abhilasha Kumari pronounced the judgment while granting bail to Vaidya. The court held that Vaidya’s appeal petition against his conviction is pending and he has already served one year of imprisonment. Besides, the court said, based on the evidence against him, bail can be granted.
Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Jafri, expressed her disappointment over the verdict in this matter and hinted that she might approach the higher courts. “After so many people died, that’s all the court could decide? Just 12 guilty? I will have to fight this,” said Jafri.
Social activist Teesta Setalvad, who has been fighting for justice for the victims, welcomed the verdict but expressed disappointment with the “lesser sentence”. “We will appeal against the lesser sentence for those who haven’t been awarded life imprisonment,” she said.
Relatives of the convicts, on the other hand, claimed they were innocent and that they would appeal the sentence in higher courts.
The High Court held that Mr Vaidya’s petition challenging his conviction is pending before the court and he already served one year in jail so a regular bail can be granted to him. He is the first convict to get a regular bail in the case in which 23 persons were convicted by the special SIT court in 2016.
