An official claimed on Saturday that a convict in the 2002 Godhra train atrocity case, who was serving a life sentence in a major jail in Gujarat’s Vadodara, died while undergoing treatment at a hospital. Assistant Commissioner of Police AV Rajgor said Bilal Ismael Abdul Majid or Haji Bilal, 61, died on Friday owing to a pre-existing health ailment for which he was receiving treatment at Vadodara’s SSG Hospital.
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He went on to say that Bilal had been unwell for the last three to four years and that his health had deteriorated to the point that he was transferred from the jail to the hospital on November 22. “He passed away due to his body facing acute oxygen shortage. His family has been told of the situation and has arrived here. His postmortem is now underway. At first glance, it appears that he died as a result of his pre-existing health problems “Added he.
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Bilal was one of 11 people sentenced to life in prison for torching the S6 carriage of the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra on February 27, 2002, as it was transporting kar sevaks from Ayodhya. The fire claimed the lives of 59 individuals and sparked widespread rioting across the state. An SIT court originally handed down the death punishment to Bilal and ten others in 2011. The Gujarat High Court, however, reduced their execution sentence to life imprisonment in October 2017. The destruction of the Godhra train sparked large-scale rioting across Gujarat, killing over 1,000 people, largely from minority populations.
