AHMEDABAD: Nine of the 64 people accused in the Gulbarg Society massacre case will continue languishing in jail as the Supreme Court has refused to vacate the stay on the trial court from pronouncing the final verdict.

While five of them - Sandip Mehra, Jayesh Jingar, Surendra Chauhan, Kailash Dhobi and Jayesh Parmar — are lodged in the Sabarmati Central Jail for more than 11 years, four others including Naran Tank and Raju Tivari are incarcerated in the same prison since 2008.

The trial in the case is on since 2009. The SC has restrained the special SIT court from delivering its final verdict against 64 accused, who are being tried for the killing of 69 persons on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra carnage. After this stay order, two judges BU Joshi and BJ Dhandha heard the final arguments in the case and both have now retired. Lengthy final arguments might take place for the third time after a judge is designated by the HC.

Last year, the accused had moved the Gujarat high court requesting it to either vacate the stay on judgment or grant them bail. The high court had refused to entertain this petition, since the demand was to modify the SC order. This had led the accused to move the apex court, but a bench of Justices HL Dattu, Ranjana Prakash Desai and MY Eqbal dismissed their appeals on Monday.

