A judgment has branded the Muslims of Godhra "Hindu killers" by tradition. The 27 February 2002 train fi re, it declares, was a conspiracy to kill karsevaks. Ignoring the plain record that the source of the fi re was inside the train even before it suddenly stopped after leaving Godhra station, the judgment holds that the train was stalled by Muslims to break into a coach brimming with belligerent karsevaks, pour petrol, and start a fi re, and to do so all unnoticed. The half-truths of forensics and the machinations of the police have succeeded in the trial, and 31 men, unfairly made to bear the burden of proof and denied vital witnesses, have been sentenced either to death or life imprisonment.
