(With inputs from PTI)

Godhra train attack: Key accused arrested after 14 years

NEW DELHI: A key conspirator, Farooq Mohammad Bhana, in the 2002 Godhra train burning case was on Wednesday arrested by the Gujarat ATS.Bhana was on the run for the last 14 years after the 2002 Sabarmati Express train burning incident in which 59 people were killed.An ATS official said that Bhana was one of the key accused, who hatched the conspiracy to burn the train at Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002.The incident triggered large scale communal riots in the state in which around 1,000 people were killed.According to the ATS officials, Bhana was a corporator in Godhra when the incident took place. To evade arrest, he then moved to Mumbai where he became a property broker."Based on a tip-off, we nabbed Bhana at a toll plaza near Kalol town of Panchmahal district when he was going to Godhra from Mumbai today. He was the key conspirator of Godhra carnage," an ATS official said.In the FIR, Bhana was charged with conspiracy to put the S-6 coach on fire during a meeting with others accused at the Aman Guest House near Godhra Railway Station.He, along with another corporator Bilal Haji, allegedly instructed the others accused to put the train coach on fire as per the instruction received from Maulana Umerji, who was arrested as a mastermind behind the incident but was later released.A special court had in March 2011 pronounced death penalty for the 11 people convicted in the Godhra train burning case. 20 others were handed life imprisonment.