New Delhi: The Supreme Court today directed the Special POTA court in Gujarat to transfer within a month cases against 85 accused in the Godhra train carnage to a sessions court in Godhra.
The Review Committee had earlier recommended dropping of POTA charges against the accused. The sessions court will now take cognizance of the charges under various provisons of the IPC since the review panel had recommended that charges against the accused under the POTA be dropped. The apex court passed the direction on a batch of petitions filed by the accused in the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgement, that the findings of the POTA Review Committee to drop the charges under the repealed anti-terror law would be binding on the government and the designated court.
The POTA Review Committee had earlier dropped the charges against the petitoners who number over 90 arrested under the anti-terror Act. As the POTA cases stand dropped against the accused, they would now stand trial under IPC offences before the sessions court, Godhra which will also consider their bail applications. A three judge bench of Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices R V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari while transferring the case to the sessions court said the latter would be uninfluenced by the observations made by the apex court or any other court in matter relating to the Godhra incidents.
