A special court on Friday convicted 11 perpetrators to life imprisonment, 12 others to seven years and one more to ten years in jail, in the 14 year old Gulbarg society massacre case.
69 people along with Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed in the communal violence, that took place on 28 February, 2002 in Gujarat post the Godhra riots.
As the court ruled out death sentence for the convicts, wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, Zakia Jafri, who has been actively fighting for justice for the last 14 years, says she is not satisfied with the SIT verdict.
“I know it all and as I have seen the massacre. I expected all to be convicted…how they killed people, how they made them homeless, I saw it myself. I can’t dare to ask for capital punishment but maximum punishment should be given. They should be given life imprisonment so they could know the pain of staying away from their family and children,” Zakia had said after the verdict was pronounced on 2 June, 2016.
Back in 2013, Zakia had filed a petition, challenging SIT’s clean chit to Modi, alleging that SIT had “covered up the crimes and misled the court”. In her long fight for justice, Zakia was joined by social activist Teesta Setalvad, who had been fighting for victims of the Gulbarg massacre and was fighting cases for them.
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