Vikrant Massey’s The Sabarmati Report released: All about 2002 Godhra tragedy

The Sabarmati Report, featuring Vikrant Massey, Raashii Khanna, and Ridhi Dogra, released in India today. The film is based on Sabarmati Express incident, which occurred on the morning of February 27, 2002, near the Godhra railway station in Gujarat.
Directed by Dheeraj Sarna, the film also highlights Hindi vs English debate. As the movies hits the big screen today, let’s take a look at the real story of the Sabarmati Express train tragedy.
The movie ‘The Sabarmati Report’ is inspired by a tragic chapter in history, when a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire near Godhra, Gujarat. The train, en route from Ayodhya to Ahmedabad, was carrying mostly Hindu pilgrims returning from a religious gathering in Ayodhya. The incident claimed the lives of 59 people, which led to communal riots across Gujarat.
At approximately 7.45am on February 27, 2002, the Sabarmati Express arrived at Godhra railway station as per its scheduled timing. The train, which connected Muzaffarpur in Bihar to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, passed through several towns, including Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh.
On board the Sabarmati Express were hundreds of karsevaks (volunteers), who had been part of a religious pilgrimage to Ayodhya. They were returning from a Purnahuti Yajna organized by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a key group behind the Ram temple movement in the 1980s and early 1990s, which culminated in the controversial demolition of the Babri Mosque in December 1992. On February 25, around 1,700 people, including karsevaks and pilgrims, boarded the train in Ahmedabad, headed back to Gujarat. The train arrived at Godhra station early on February 27.
As the train began to depart Godhra, the driver later stated in his testimony that the emergency chains were pulled several times, which caused the train to halt at the outer signal. According to police reports, a mob of approximately 2,000 people attacked the train, hurling stones at the carriages and setting four coaches ablaze.

The scratch mark on the sliding door leading to coach S7. (Image: Nanavati Report)

The fire resulted in the deaths of 59 people, including 27 women and 10 children, while 48 others were injured. The S6 coach bore the brunt of the attack.
In the wake of the Godhra train fire, violent riots erupted across Gujarat the following day, February 28, 2002. While the state government initially claimed to have the situation under control within three days, violence continued for several weeks, lasting two to three months.

The image shows the damage that was caused by the fire to coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express. (Image: Nanavati Report)

The state government established a commission of inquiry led by Justice GT Nanavati, with Justice KG Shah as a member, to investigate the incident. The commission’s report concluded that the majority of those killed in the fire were karsevaks and pilgrims returning from Ayodhya.
In a separate investigation, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Gandhinagar, led by Mohinder Singh Dahiya, the then assistant director, concluded that the fire in coach S-6 was likely set from within the coach. The FSL report suggested that a container of liquid fuel had been poured onto the coach from seat number 72, indicating that the fire could have been the result of an insider’s action.
In 2004, after a change in the central government, a new commission of inquiry, chaired by Justice UC Banerjee, was established. The Banerjee Commission, in its 2006 report, termed the Godhra train fire as an ‘accident’. However, the Supreme Court deemed the commission’s report unconstitutional and invalid, setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to further probe the Godhra incident and the subsequent Gujarat riots.
In the midst of this, Justice Shah passed away in 2008 and was replaced by Justice Akshay Mehta in the Nanavati Commission. In its 2008 report, the commission concluded that the Godhra train burning was part of a premeditated conspiracy, not a spontaneous act of mob violence.
The trial for those involved in the Godhra train burning began in June 2009, seven years after the incident. Two years later, a fast-track court in Ahmedabad convicted 31 individuals, while 63 others were acquitted. The trial court echoed the findings of the Nanavati Commission, asserting that the fire was not a random act of mob violence but a deliberate conspiracy.
Among those convicted for Godhra train burning, 11 individuals were sentenced to death, while 20 others received life sentences. However, in October 2023, the Gujarat High Court commuted the death sentences of the 11 convicts to life imprisonment, while maintaining the life sentences for others and upholding the acquittals. As a result, all 31 individuals convicted in the Godhra train burning case are now serving life sentences.