Vadodara: Bilal Ismael Abdul Majid or Haji Bilal, 61, died on Thursday, due to some pre-existing health condition, for which he was undergoing treatment at Vadodara's SSG Hospital, Assistant Commissioner of Police AV Rajgor said. Haji Bilal was serving a life sentence in Vadodara Central Jail.
Bilal was earlier sentenced to death for the Godhra riots. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Police added that Bilal was not keeping well for the last three to four years and was shifted to the hospital from the jail on November 22 after his health deteriorated. He died during treatment on Thursday.
In February 2011, the trial court had awarded death sentence to 11 accused, including Haji Bilal, and life imprisonment to 20 others for setting fire to two coaches of the Sabarmati Express train at Godhra on February 27, 2002. The Gujarat High Court later commuted the sentence of the 11 convicts to life imprisonment.
Haji Bilal, who was surviving oxygen, died during treatment late on Thursday night. After his death, the police have started legal action. After the postmortem, the police will hand over his body to the family.
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