Ex-CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana Rejects Sonia Gandhi’s “Disputed” Claim On Godhra Fire

Asthana, who investigated the 2002 Sabarmati Express burning, says forensic evidence settled the cause and the courts upheld i

PGurus Newsdesk

November 14, 2026

A special court convicted 31 people in 2011, the Gujarat High Court upheld 11 convictions in 2014 and the Supreme Court later dismissed appeals

Asthana says forensic evidence established the cause and that the investigation was completed and authentic

Rakesh Asthana, former Special Director of the CBI, who investigated the 2002 Godhra train burning, has rejected a line in Sonia Gandhi’s memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love that describes the cause of the fire as disputed.

In the book, Gandhi writes that the riots were triggered when four coaches of the Sabarmati Express were set on fire and 59 pilgrims died. The train was returning to Ahmedabad from Ayodhya, carrying Hindu karsevaks. She adds that the cause of the fire remains disputed, but that the turmoil that followed spread to many parts of the state.

In an interview with ANI, Asthana called the claim completely wrong. He said the investigation was authentic and had been proved in a court of law, that it was complete, and that forensic evidence had established the cause of the fire. Anyone still raising doubts, he said, is doing so for political reasons, and there is no other explanation.

Asked whether a vote bank was behind such doubts, Asthana said everyone who died in Godhra was Hindu, but that death is death and murder is murder, whoever the victim. The investigators treated it as a criminal act, he said. He added that, unfortunately, the issue was presented as if the probe was meant to benefit then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The facts of the case are on record. On February 27, 2002, a mob set fire to the Sabarmati Express carrying Hindu karsevaks, killing 59 people, including women and children. Communal riots followed across Gujarat, in which hundreds were killed.

In 2011, a special court convicted 31 people in the train burning case. In 2014, the Gujarat High Court upheld the conviction of 11 of them and acquitted 20 others. The Supreme Court later upheld the High Court’s verdict and dismissed the appeals filed by the convicts.

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