Gujarat ATS Arrests Alleged Mastermind Behind Godhra Train Carnage

People light candles during a prayer ceremony in Ahmedabad for the victims of the Godhra train burning incident. (Photo: Reuters)

• The Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) of the Gujarat Police has arrested Farooq Bhana, the main conspirator of the Sabarmati Express burning incident, who was absconding since 2002.
  
  
• Earlier in October 2015, Farookh Mohammad Dhantiya (45) was nabbed by the Local crime branch of the Gujarat Police on a specific tip-off from his residence near Issac mosque in Signal Falia area near Godhra railway station.
  
  
• “He (Bhana) will now be handed over to the investigating officer for further probe,” said JK Bhatt, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch. He added that Bhana used to work for small contracts for Bombay’s Municipal corporation and that he was nabbed after they received information about him travelling to Godhra frequently.
  
  
• These arrests are in connection with the case, in which as many as 58 people died when the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was torched at Godhra railway station on 27 February 2002. The incident had triggered large scale riots in the state in which around 1,000 people, mostly from a minority community, were killed.