The Gujarat High Court has delivered a scathing verdict, upholding the dismissal of nine Government Railway Police personnel who abandoned their duty on one of the most critical days in recent Indian history. These officers were assigned to protect the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002—the day it was engulfed in flames by a violent mob near Godhra—but chose to return to Ahmedabad on a different train simply because the assigned train was delayed.
In her April 24 ruling, Justice Vaibhavi Nanavati unequivocally stated that the horrific train burning could have been averted had the officers fulfilled their duty. Their dereliction, she observed, was not just a failure of protocol but a catastrophic lapse that may have cost lives.
According to case records, nine members of the Government Railway Police’s ‘mobile squad’—tasked with boarding the Sabarmati Express at Dahod and patrolling it through to Ahmedabad—grossly abandoned their duty in a moment of critical need. Arriving in Dahod in the early hours of February 27 via the Rajkot-Bhopal Express, the team, which included three armed constables and six unarmed policemen, chose to board the Shanti Express instead after being informed that the Sabarmati Express was “indefinitely late.”
Their absence proved critical on the fateful morning of February 27, 2002. At 7:40 am, a mob set fire to the S6 coach, which took the lives of at least 59 passengers, most of them ‘karsevaks’ who were returning from Ayodhya.
A media report added that by the time they reached Ahmedabad around 10:05 am., the devastating news had broken: the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express had been set ablaze near Godhra, claiming the lives of 59 passengers—mostly ‘karsevaks’ returning from Ayodhya. In 2005, after a departmental inquiry, all nine were dismissed from service by the Gujarat government for gross negligence and failure to uphold their sworn duty.
“The petitioners (policemen) made bogus entries in the register and returned to Ahmedabad by Shanti Express. If the petitioners had departed in Sabarmati Express train itself to reach Ahmedabad, the incident that occurred at Godhra could have been prevented. The petitioners showed negligence and carelessness towards their duty,” said the Judge.
The tragedy, one of the darkest chapters in modern Indian history, might have been averted had the officers upheld their duty.
These nine personnel were suspended and then removed from service.
The petitioners approached the High Court seeking to overturn their termination and demanded reinstatement, arguing that switching trains when the assigned one is running “indefinitely late” is a routine practice among GRP personnel. However, the state government firmly defended its decision, revealing a more serious breach: not only did the officers fail to board the Sabarmati Express as assigned, but they also deliberately falsified records at the Dahod station outpost.
They claimed to have departed on the Sabarmati Express, misleading the control room into believing the train was under official protection. This deception, the government argued, was a clear dereliction of duty and justified their dismissal.
“The petitioners were entrusted with the duty in Sabarmati Express train. From the record, it emerges that the train belonged to ‘A’ category. A category are such trains where frequency of untoward incidents like chain pulling, altercations, etc. is high” the HC order noted.
“The petitioners admittedly having been assigned such important duty, have casually thought it fit, not to travel by the assigned train and travelled by Shanti Express” said the order. “The reasonings assigned by the competent authorities (government) do not call for any interference. This court deems it fit not to exercise the extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution. Accordingly, both the petitions fail and are dismissed.”
