The Gujarat government has decided to pay Rs 5 lakh compensation to the kin of each of the 52 victims of Godhra train burning incident. On February 27, it will be 17 years since the incident that triggered one of the worst communal riots in the country’s history. The decision comes nearly 1.4 years after the Gujarat High Court directed that the compensation be paid out, while delivering the judgment on October 9, 2017 on a petition appealing against the sentence given out by the trial court.
Announcing the decision, State Home Minister Pradeepsinh Jadeja said in a statement on Thursday that the government will be spending Rs 260 lakh for this purpose from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Jadeja pointed out that the Gujarat High Court had directed both the Gujarat government and the Railway ministry to pay Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of those who were killed after a coach of Sabarmati Express was set afire on February 27, 2002. The deaths, mostly of karsevaks who were returning from Ayodhya, had sparked off state-wide communal riots where over 1,000 persons, mostly from the minority community, were killed.