A special court in Ahmedabad today convicted 24 of the 66 accused in the 2002 post Godhra Gulberg Society massacre case.
Sixty nine people, including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri, were killed in the Gulbarg Society riots.
As per reports, Special Court Judge PB Desai also acquitted 36 accused persons including BJP corporator Bipin Patel and Congress corporator Meghsinh Chaudhari and also dropped the conspiracy charge against all the accused.
The court said that there is no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case, while dropping section 120 B of the IPC.
Former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was among those killed in the riots.
Out of the 66 accused, six had died during the trial. Of the 24 convicted today, 11 have been charged with murder, while other 13 have been convicted for lesser offences.
The 24 convicted includes VHP leader Atul Vaidya. The quantum of punishment for those convicted in the case will be delivered on June 6.
The court also dropped the charges against KG Erda, then police inspector of the area under which the Gulberg Society was located.
The Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31.
The Gulberg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.
The riots at Gulbarg Society had taken place a day after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra train station on February 27, 2002 during which 58 volunteers were killed.
