open case From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 40, Dated Oct 11, 2008 GAPING LOOPHOLES IN GODHRA RIOT • FIVE MONTHS AFTER the incident, the police produced Ajay Baria, a Hindu tea vendor, as a witness. Baria said nine Muslim hawkers dragged him to Razzak Kurkur’s house, where they first forced him to load petrol onto a rickshaw, then forced him to go to Cabin A to stand as a witness while they burnt coach S-6. Why would Muslim hawkers force a reluctant Hindu to collude in their crime, no one can tell. Baria is shadowed 24/7 by a police escort. His mother told TEHELKA he had become a witness out of fear. • IN AN ATTEMPT to nail religious and political Muslim leaders as the key conspirators, the police produced two witnesses: Jabir Bin Bahera and Sikandar Siddik. Bahera claimed to have bought 140 litres of petrol with fellow hawkers on the evening of February 26, 2002, and set coach S-6 on fire the next day. He named Maulvi Umarji as the mastermind. He has since retracted his statement. Siddik, who had corroborated Bahera word for word, also named another religious head, Yakub Punjabi for inciting the mob. The police detained Punjabi, but it turned out he wasn’t even in the country on that day. • THREE karsevaks—Dinesh bhai Patel, Rambhai Patel and Nitinbhai Patel — had first claimed they had fainted due to the smoke in coach S-6 and seen nothing. But on June 8, 2002, in an astounding volte-face, they sudde nly changed their statement and claimed they’d seen some Muslim hawkers throwing some liquid on the floor of the coach, as well as throwing a burning mashaal into the coach through a window. This convenie ntly matched the assumption of the forensic report a few days later.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 15:46:32 +0000
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