2002 Gujarat Sardarpura riots: SC grants bail to 17 convicts

The Supreme Court has granted bail to 17 convicts in the 2002 Sardarpura post-Godhra riots case, saying that all the convicts will have to do community service for six hours a week besides reporting to the local police station on a weekly basis as bail conditions.
The convicts, who were handed down life sentences in the Sardarpura riots case, had appealed against the Gujarat High Court order convicting them.
The Sardarpura massacre was the first of the nine post-Godhra riots cases to be probed by the SIT. A day after the Sabarmati Express burning incident, a mob gathered near Sheikh Vaas, a Muslim-populated area in Sardarpura, and burnt the house of Ibrahim Sheikh, where the victims had taken shelter, 33 people were burnt alive in the massacre.