Court clears 6 of killing Britons

A court in India yesterday cleared six men of murdering four people including three British nationals during 2002 religious riots in the prime minister's home state of Gujarat.

At least 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed in a frenzy of communal violence in 2002 in the western state where Narendra Modi was chief minister.

The three British nationals were burned alive when a mob torched their car as they drove into Gujarat from the adjacent state of Rajasthan during the bloodshed, some of the worst religious violence to hit India since independence from Britain in 1947.

The reason for the acquittal was not immediately made clear.

The case was investigated by a team specially appointed by India's Supreme Court in 2008 to look into the riots. More than 130 people have been given life sentences as a result. The latest trial took five years to complete, partly because of the need to take evidence by video link from two former British diplomats to India who visited the scene of the murders.