( 1 ) THESE appeals have arisen from the orders of the learned Special Judge (POTA) rejecting the applications of the appellants for regular bail and have come up before this Court under sub-section (4) of section 34 and section 49 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as "pota") after about a year of the impugned orders. The appellants are the persons accused in POTA Case No. 1 of 2003 pursuant to Godhra Railway Police Station C. R. I-9 of 2002 alleging offences punishable under sections 147, 148, 149, 337, 338, 334, 153-A, 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("the IPC" for short), under section 141, 151 and 152 of the Indian Railway Act, under sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Damages to Public Properties Act and under sections 3 (2) and 3 (3) of the POTA for the alleged offence of burning of coach No. S-6 of Sabarmati Express train on 27. 2. 2002 at about 7. 45 a. m. at Godhra Railway Station wherein 59 persons were killed and 48 persons were seriously injured. It needs to be noted at the outset that similar plea for bail made in another batch of appeals, which were filed subsequent to the present set of appeals, has been decided on 30. 10. 2004 by another Bench of this Court (Coram: R. K. Abichandani and H. N. Devani, JJ) after setting out in detail the facts and contentions. The present set of appeals were argued together on similar grounds and it was fairly conceded that, in the aforesaid batch of appeals, the basic facts, Crime Register Number of the offence and the allegations and contentions thereon were the same or similar. However, it was elaborately argued that the decisions and observations in those appeals were not binding as a precedent for the facts which were not in issue and the contentions which were not raised in those appeals. Therefore, the special facts which were highlighted in the present set of appeals and the additional submissions which were made are required to be dealt with and the basic facts and arguments being the same, all the appeals are decided by this common judgment.

( 2 ) WITH the above background, the version emanating from the police papers, summarised as under by the other Bench of this Court, may be adopted:"2. 1. . . . . . In short, when the said train reached Godhra railway station in the morning at about 7. 43 a. m. , i. e. much later than its scheduled time of 2. 55 a. m. , there was some minor incident on the platform with a tea-vendor and after the train started at 7. 48 a. m. , the chain was pulled around 7. 50 a. m. Thereafter, it started again at 7. 55 a. m. but after some distance, the chain was pulled again simultaneously from four compartments at 7. 58 a. m. and it stopped near "a" cabin only about 332 meters from the platform and the incident is said to have taken place around 8. 00 a. m. when a large number of people had attacked and set on fire the said compartment S-6. These persons came from a nearby area including from Signal Faliya. As per the police papers, on the previous evening, petrol cans were stored in the nearby Aman Guest House. At the time of the incident, these were used for setting the compartment on fire. When the train halted, members from the mob, who wanted to attack the compartment, pelted stones, banged iron pipes, lathis etc. and by cutting open the vestibule, entered the compartment S-6, poured inflammable substances in it like petrol and set it on fire. The persons forming an unlawful assembly tried to prevent the passengers from getting down from the burning coach. R. P. F. and other police people reached on the spot and tried to control the mob by firing a few shots, perhaps in the air. However, the incident appears to have occurred in a very well planned and swift manner, because, within few minutes of the halting of the train, it was attacked by a huge mob, armed with lethal weapons and cans of inflammable material like petrol, kerosene and acid were soon brought and the coach number S-