Gujarat: Man serving life sentence in Godhra train carnage case nabbed a year after jumping parole

A convict serving life sentence in the 2002 Godhra train carnage case was arrested from Gujarat's Dahod district

Godhra: A convict serving life sentence in the 2002 Godhra train carnage case was arrested from Gujarat’s Dahod district a year after he jumped parole, police said on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off that Kasim Abdul Sattar was living in Limkheda in Dahod, the parole furlough squad reached there on Saturday and arrested him, a release from police stated.

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He was handed over to the City B division police so that he can be taken to Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad to serve the remainder of his sentence, the release added.

Sattar was sentenced to life imprisonment in the February 27, 2002 case of setting two coaches of Sabarmati Express on fire in Godhra. It killed 59 passengers and plunged the state into communal riots in which more than 1,200 persons lost their lives.

He was arrested in March 2002 and charged with Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections pertaining to murder, attempt to murder, dacoity, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, deterring public servant, etc. as well as provisions of the Railway Act and Prevention of Damages to Public Properties Act.

In March 2011, a total of 11 convicts were handed down death sentences, while 20 were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court for the train arson incident.

Six years later, the Gujarat High Court commuted the death sentence of 11 convicts to life imprisonment and upheld life imprisonment for 20 others.