7 Godhra convicts reach MP to do community service

Bhopal: Seven people convicted in 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat late on Tuesday night arrived in the cities of Jabalpur and Indore in Madhya Pradesh to do community service, a condition on which they were granted bail by the Supreme Court recently.

While one of them arrived in Jabalpur, other six convicts reached Indore, officials said on Wednesday.

“The seven convicts will work as volunteers in the Narmada Kumbh, scheduled to be held from February 24 to March 3 this year on the banks of river Narmada at Gwarighat on the outskirts of Jabalpur,” MP state legal services authority member Giribala Singh told reporters here.

According to her, they are scheduled to do community services, meditation drill and spiritual programmes during the Kumbh, held on the banks of river Narmada every five years, as per the directive by the apex court.

The Supreme Court last month granted bail to 15 people who have been sentenced to life imprisonment after convicting them in gruesome killing of 23 people who were burnt to death in Ode in Gujarat’s Anand district, on the condition that they do community services.

Seven of them arrived in MP to do community service.

The seven convicts would also work as volunteers in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, at old age homes and would take care of patients who have no one to look after them in the hospitals, Ms Singh  said.

They may also be engaged in the works of the Smart City project.