• Rakesh Asthana rejects Sonia Gandhi memoir’s account of the Godhra fire.
• Former CBI officer says forensic evidence established the cause.
• Gandhi’s memoir describes the cause as disputed.
• Courts convicted 31 people in the 2011 trial court verdict.

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 14th Nov: Former CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana has rejected a passage in Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love that describes the cause of the 2002 Godhra train burning as disputed.

In an interview with ANI, Asthana, who investigated the incident, said the probe had established the cause of the fire through forensic evidence and that the findings had been upheld by courts.

“That is completely wrong, the investigation is authentic. It has been proved in the court of law,” Asthana said, adding that attempts to raise doubts about the findings were politically motivated.

In her memoir, Gandhi writes that the Sabarmati Express was set on fire, killing 59 pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, but adds that “the cause of the fire remains disputed”.

Responding to questions about whether the controversy was linked to vote-bank politics, Asthana said the investigation had treated the incident as a criminal act, irrespective of the victims’ religion.

He said 59 people lost their lives and argued that death and murder should not be viewed differently on the basis of religious identity. Asthana also alleged that the case had been politicised and that attempts were made to shape the investigation to benefit Narendra Modi.

The incident took place on February 27, 2002, when four coaches of the Sabarmati Express were set on fire near Godhra in Gujarat. Fifty-nine people, including women and children, were killed. The incident was followed by widespread communal violence across Gujarat, in which hundreds of people lost their lives.

In 2011, a special court convicted 31 people in the train-burning case. The Gujarat High Court in 2014 upheld the convictions of 11 people and acquitted 20 others. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the High Court verdict and dismissed appeals filed by the convicts, as stated in the report.

The remarks by Asthana have brought renewed attention to the investigation and the judicial proceedings surrounding one of the most consequential incidents in Gujarat’s recent history.