A Special  Court in Ahmedabad, constituted to go into the Godhra riots, on Tuesday pronounced the death penalty for 11 convicted in the Godhra train burning case while 20 others have been given the life sentence.

The court acquitted prime accused Umarji while other prominent accused Haji Billa and Rajjak Kurkur were convicted.

According to the Public Prosecutor,  “The court reckons the Godhra case as the rarest of rare before declaring stringent punishment on the culprits for having set fire to the Sabarmati Express train near Godhra”.

The prosecution had sought death sentence for all the 31 convicts, saying that it was a heinous act.

The trial conducted inside the Sabarmati Central Jail here began in June 2009 with the framing of charges against 94 accused in the carnage that had triggered widespread communal riots in Gujarat, subsequently taking away the lives of 1200 people.

Defence counsel I M Munshi made it clear that the convicts are going to challenge the Special Court’s order in the higher court.

Meanwhile, noted civil rights campaigner Swami Agnivesh on Tuesday said the judgment of the court is based on concocted  evidence.