Tomorrow is the judgement in the Gulberg case NOT the Zakia Jafri case which is still in the Gujarat High Court. The Gulberg Society Massacre is the second largest massacre related to the Gujarat 2002 genocidal killings wherein 69 persons were killed. 31 persons of these were declared missing. The single largest massacre was the Naroda Patiya massacre wherein according to the charge sheet 96 persons died though survivor figures put the dead are 126. Judgement in the Patiya case was delivered on 29.08.2012 wherein 32 persons including a former minister were convicted.
(There is a natural and deliberate confusion between the two. The Gulberg Verdict relates to ONE incident in which as many as 69 people, including former Parliamentarian Ahsan Jafri were brutally slaughtered in a daylight massacre that lasted close to eight hours. The Zakia Jafri Case relates to 300 incidents all over Gujarat and is attempting to pin criminal and administrative culpability on the politically and administratively powerful. The Zakia Jafri case is at the pre prosecution stage we are trying to get the Court to issue process/direct a charge sheet since the SIT under RK Raghavan so let us down...)
Tomorrow s verdict is the second.last among those being monitored by SC in the 2002 Trials.Naroda Gaam is last.
To just recap, it is the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) that followed through in the Supreme Court on the recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC report on transfer of prosecution). Instead of CBI SIT under Raghavan was appointed on 26.3.2008; Investigations improved by just 30 per cent. We went to SC for a re constitution of the SIT in 2009 (since Johri and Jha were indicted officers). That did not happen.
Since 2002, in the Trials monitored by the SC, where CJP has had a steady team of lawyers giving legal aid to over 570 witness survivors, there have been a total of 126 convictions to life imprisonment achieved so far. This is unprecedented in our recent history. See attached Table Giving details of these Convictions
By late this evening cjponline.org and sabrangindia.in shall have detailed Backgrounders on the Trial
see the table concerning cases pursued by CJP
