The Indian Express
Dec 15, 2008
Our statements fabricated, say Naroda victims
by Vikram Rautela
Ahmedabad: Six victims of the Naroda gam (village) violence during the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat have told the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT) that their statements submitted at several places in connection to the case so far were fabricated and recorded without their knowledge. The issue assumes signification because the places where these statements have been submitted also include the Supreme Court.
In its first chargesheet in the Naroda gam riots case filed before a city court here on Wednesday, the SIT has appended copies of the depositions of the victims recorded by it while further investigating the case. The Indian Express has a copy of the chargesheet.
In their depositions before the SIT, at least six of the victims have alleged that their earlier statements (recorded by some human rights groups and ‘authorities’ in the Shah-e-Alam relief camp that year) were incorrect and fabricated. They have further alleged that these statements were recorded in their names without their knowledge and according to the will of persons who recorded the statements.
In her deposition before the SIT in February this year, victim Madina Pathan (25), retracting from her affidavit filed before the apex court earlier in 2003, told the SIT that no one had raped her that day. The affidavit in the court that sought a CBI inquiry into the case claimed that Pathan was beaten up and later raped by a person in the Hindu mob.
While deposing before the SIT, Pathan, however, said one Nanumiyan, who along with a Delhi-based human rights group is petitioner in this case, had got these statements recorded by their counsel. “These affidavits were in English and I do not know what was written on the paper that I was made to sign. No one had committed rape on me,” says Pathan’s statement. Pathan further says that she was stabbed on her hand by a rioter and that her family members were burnt alive by the mob that day.
Another victim, Maqsood Miyan Patan, who according to his affidavit in the apex court had seen two men — Naroda corporator Vallabh Patel and former Naroda corporator Ashok Saheb — getting out of a car and handing over a black suitcase to the then Naroda police inspector K K Mysorewala, following which the latter reportedly left in his official vehicle, has also retracted from this, saying that, “some counsel of an NGO had written all this without his knowledge”. He said the “counsel in the office of a prominent notary were instigating him and other victims to name more persons in their statements”. Earlier, 53 people, including the then Bajrang Dal leader Babubhai Bajrangi, were arrested by city police in connection with the case. The SIT started investigations this year. Of the total of 29 new accused, 24 have been arrested, two are now dead, two are unidentified and one is absconding.
|
