Gulbarg Massacre 'Darkest Day,' Says Judge Sentencing 11 To Life: 10 Updates

A special court in Ahmedabad also sentenced one person to 10 years in jail and 12 others, convicted of lesser offences, to seven years.

"We are back where we started," said an upset Zakia Jafri, whose husband Ehsan Jafri, an ex-Congress lawmaker, was among those killed in the mob attack.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for all 24 convicted, arguing that those targeted, including women and children, were all "innocent people".

Families of the victims had also been disappointed when the court on June 2 convicted 24 of the 66 people accused but acquitted 36 for want of evidence. Five people had died during trial and one is missing.

The Gulbarg massacre, named after the housing complex in Ahmedabad, was one of the single worst losses of life in the riots that swept through Gujarat in 2002 leaving more than 1,000 people dead.

The attack took place on February 28, a day after a mob torched coaches of the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra station leaving 59 people dead.

Ehsan Jafri and many other Gulbarg residents were hacked and burnt to death. The former parliamentarian's frantic phone calls to police officers and senior politicians for help allegedly went unanswered.

Among those acquitted in the Gulbarg case was Bipin Patel a four-time BJP corporator who was accused of being part of the mob and was charged with murder.

The court rejected the charge of criminal conspiracy against all the 66 accused, saying there was no evidence that the mob attack was planned, as alleged by victims.

The Gulbarg massacre is among the 10 major 2002 Gujarat riot cases re-investigated by a Special Investigation Team or SIT appointed by the Supreme Court.