The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to 15 convicts who are undergoing life sentence in a 2002 post-Godhra riots case, wherein 33 members of a minority community were burnt alive.
During the bail period, they will be relocated at Madhya Pradesh and cannot enter Gujarat; in MP, they will render community service six hours a week and will be able to leave jail, if they do the task diligently.
The bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde asked the MP authorities to find them gainful employment involving "social and spiritual service".
The court has divided the convicts in two batches which will be stationed in Indore and Jabalpur, respectively, till their appeals against the conviction by the Gujarat High Court are finally decided by the Supreme Court, ruled the 3-judge Bench.
The bail conditions slapped on them include reporting to the local police station every week. The Gujarat High Court had convicted them while acquitting 14 others in the Sardarpura massacre.
The rioters had set ablaze a home in Sardarpura village of Mehsana district in which 33 members of the minority community had taken shelter on the night of February 28, 2002, following the Godhra train carnage. All the 33 people, including 22 women, were killed in the attack. The rioters have been in jail since their conviction in 2012. The Bench has asked the Madhya Pradesh state legal service authority to submit a report after three
