23 : 23 : 23 Dead : Guilty : Acquited

A sessions court in Anand on Monday convicted 23 people in the Ode massacre case and acquitted 23 others for lack of evidence. The judgement was delivered by Anand district and sessions judge Poonam Singh who would pronounce the quantum of sentence on April 12.The Ode case is the first post-Godhra riot case in which the court held the accused guilty of conspiracy and convicted them under Section 120B of the IPC. In the Sardarpura massacre case, the special court had sentenced 31 accused to life imprisonment but had not upheld the conspiracy (120B) theory put forth by the special investigation team (SIT). Further, the Ode massacre case is the third of the 9 riot cases investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT in which a verdict has been delivered. Earlier, in the Godhra train burning case, 11 people were sentenced to death and 20 to life imprisonment for conspiracy and murder. In the Sardarpura massacre case of Mehsana, 31 accused were awarded life sentence and 42 acquitted.On March 1, 2002, a day after 59 kar sevaks were burnt alive in the Sabarmati Express carnage at Godhra, a mob of over 1,500 people attacked and set on fire Muslim houses and properties in Pirawali Bhagol area of Ode village, 20 km from Anand.As the mob torched houses and chased members of the minority community, several Muslims took refuge in the house of one Akbar Khan, a highly respected resident of the village. The victims had hoped that the rioters would go away but the mob attacked Khan’s house and set it on fire too.A total of 23 people, including nine women and nine children, were burnt alive that day. The remains of only two victims, Sikandarmiya and his daughter Guddi, could be recovered as the bodies of the other victims were reduced to ashes. A total of 274 properties in the village were destroyed during the communal frenzy. The case was first investigated by the Gujarat police but, in 2008, it was among the 9 cases handed over to the SIT for investigation on the orders of the Supreme Court. Around 150 witnesses were examined in the case but 35 had turned hostile. The SIT had based its case against the accused on the testimony of 12 key witnesses. Further, over 170 documentary evidences were placed before the court during the trial. The families of those who died in the massacre are relieved that at last some justice has been done but they insist that all the 46 accused were guilty. Mohammad Khan Pathan, a key witness who lost seven members of his family in the attack and was himself seriously injured, said they would like to appeal in the high court against the sessions court judgment.On the other hand, families of the convicted people insist that their kin had been wrongly indicted. Madhuben, the mother of a convicted accused, Devang Patel, said with tears in her eyes, "We are victims of internal rivalry in our own community. My 35-year-old son is totally innocent," she said, as Devang's shocked wife looked on after her husband was pronounced guilty.Prosecutor PN Parmar has sought capital punishment for those found guilty of mass murder and conspiracy. A total of 46 accused were tried in the case. One accused died during trial while two fled abroad after getting bail."We asked the court to put the case in the rarest of rare category. However, the court held four accused guilty of attempt to murder under section 307 and acquitted 23 others after giving them the benefit of the doubt," said Parmar. Defence lawyer CK Patel said the case cannot be put in the rarest of rare category. "We will challenge the verdict in the high court," he said.The trial began at the end of 2009 and was on the verge of completion when the then judge hearing the case resigned in May 2011 citing personal reasons. All arguments were made afresh before Judge Poonam Singh.