Delhi, 16 January (H.S.): Supreme Court will hear the 2002 Godhra train fire case on February 13. The bench headed by Justice JK Maheshwari said that now no further stay order will be given on this matter.

In this case, apart from the Gujarat government, many convicts have challenged the decision of Gujarat High Court.

Gujarat government has said that it is demanding death penalty for those 11 convicts whose sentence has been reduced to life imprisonment.

On February 27, 2002, S-6 bogie of Sabarmati Express was set on fire in which 58 people died. Sabarmati Express was bringing kar sevaks from Ayodhya. After this incident of Godhra, communal riots took place in Gujarat.

In this case, the trial court had convicted 31 people in 2011. Out of these, 11 were sentenced to death and 20 were sentenced to life imprisonment. 63 other accused were acquitted in this case. In 2017, the Gujarat High Court reduced the death sentence of 11 convicts awarded death penalty by the trial court to life imprisonment and upheld the life sentence of 20.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar