23 convicted for Gujarat carnage in 2002

April 10, 2012: A special court in the Indian state of Gujarat on Monday convicted 23 people and acquitted an equal number in the Ode massacre case during the 2002 communal riots in the state.
The quantum of punishment will be announced later. A total of 47 people were charge sheeted in the case. While one person died during the course of the trial, two are still absconding.

On 1 March 2002, a mob attacked about 20 Muslim homes in Ode village. Members of several families in the neighborhood took refuge in a three-storey house. But the mob torched it.

Majid Miyan, a survivor, recalled that after the three-hour-long horror, 23 people including nine children and nine women were killed, but only two bodies were recovered. The trial in the case started in November 2009 and 158 witnesses were cross-questioned out of which 35 turned hostile.

The Special Investigating Team (SIT), probing the case, urged the court to place the massacre in the rarest of the rare category. It is, therefore, likely to seek capital punishment or life sentence for those convicted.