From: The Indian Express
The rioters next door
by Satish Jha , Parimal Dabhi : Sun Apr 15 2012, 01:46 hrs
Dilip Vallabh Patel, 50
A leading tobacco merchant, Dilip Vallabh Patel is among Ode’s wealthiest residents and was earlier vice-president of the Ode-Burrough municipality. But now, Dilip and his elder brother Harish Vallabh have been sentenced to life in prison in the Ode killings case. Two of their relatives have also been convicted. Dilip is considered to be one of the main plotters of the murders at Ode and has spent the last two-and-a-half years in jail.
The Patels live in a sprawling bungalow at Budheshwar Society in Ode town, a house they moved into barely 10 days before the riots broke out and where the family grieves over four of its members being convicted. In the living room, chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling light up the gold streaks on the expensive green marble floor. The outer walls of the bungalow have a pink stone facade and a servant tends to the sprawling garden.
Before moving to this bungalow, the family lived in Purnima Chowk, opposite the house in Pirawali Bhagol locality where the 23 Muslims were burnt alive. Dilip’s wife Bhavna, daughter Amisha and son Sandeep live here. The family was waiting for this judgment to fix Amisha’s wedding date, hoping Dilip would be acquitted.
Bhavna is yet to come to terms with the court’s verdict. “Do you think my husband would have gone with the mob, leaving aside his business of crores? I don’t think this judgment is fair. It has come under the pressure of the SIT (the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team) and is politically motivated,” she says.
She says their family had “very cordial relationships” with their Muslim neighbours. “Even this bungalow was built by Muslim workers and we have Muslim workers in our business.” Bhavna says she doesn’t understand their business and “it’s now suffering without my husband.”
Vijay Ravji Patel, 43
Vijay’s family owns five bighas in this fertile region, where owning even one bigha is a sign of prosperity. His parents had settled in New Jersey and Vijay handled the family’s agricultural land, where they grew tobacco and banana.
But after Vijay’s arrest, his father Ravji Patel and mother Shanta came back to India to be with Vijay’s wife Sangeeta and her five-year-old son Samarth.
After the verdict, Vijay’s father Ravji attempted to commit suicide inside the court complex but policemen at the spot prevented him.
Sangeeta, 40, refuses to accept the verdict. “We used to share meals with Muslims and used to celebrate each other’s festivals. Why would we kill them and that too in such a horrible manner?”
Sangeeta says that in 2002, when the riots broke out, their family had been living in a society that was some distance from the house in Pirawali Bhagol locality where the massacre took place.
“My husband was not even there (at Purnima Chowk) when this happened. He went there later to see what had happened as we saw plumes of smoke coming from that direction. I am sure even the Muslims know that we have not done this. Their grievance is that we did not do anything when mobs came down and killed them and that we remained silent spectators,” she says. “But what could we have done with such a mob? Had we done anything, we would also have been killed.”
But a number of eyewitnesses identified Vijay as being part of the mob that went on a rampage that day on March 1, 2002.
Jayendra Sata Patel, 50
Jayendra Sata’s family shares a common wall with Zanpali Walu Makan, the ‘house with the iron grille door’ where 23 Muslims were burnt alive at Pirawali Bhagol locality. Jayendra was arrested in 2009 after several eye-witnesses and victims deposed against him for his role in the March 1 massacre. He is among the 18 who have been sentenced to life in prison.
Jayendra’s family owns three bighas in Ode where he cultivated tobacco and banana till his arrest.
“We shared a wall with ‘Zanpali Walu Makan’ and as the rioters set it on fire, our wall also caught fire. My husband went out to douse the fire by pouring a bucket of water on the wall and they said he was involved,” says Jayendra’s wife Varsha, who now lives alone. Her two children—son Darshak, 28, and daughter Monal, 26—have gone to England on a student visa.
Gulamnabi Malek, a Muslim who used to work on the family’s agricultural land under Jayendra’s supervision, continues to till the land. “Malek has been with us for years. And he continues to work with us. What enmity can we possibly have with our Muslim neighbours,” asks Varsha.
“I am worried about my husband and my children are even more worried. On Monday, when the court announced the names of the convicts, my daughter called me from London. She was very frightened as the public prosecutor had sought death penalty for her father. I lied to her and said India does not have death penalty. What else could I have said?,” she asks.
Dharmesh Natu Patel, 35
Dharmesh was elected vice-president of the Burrough municipality on April 4 this year, five days before the court held him guilty. After the conviction, he was disqualified as a member of the municipality. On Thursday, the court sentenced him, along with 18 others, to life in prison for killing 23 Muslims at Pirawali Bhagol in Ode.
Dharmesh lived with parents, wife Jigna, and four-month-old son Soham at Chandni Chowk in Ode. Apart from his work at the municipality, Dharmesh owned five bighas where he grew tobacco, bananas and green chillies.
Jigna is worried about her son Soham, who is physically impaired, and says the corrective surgery will cost Rs 10 lakh. “Who will make sure that my son gets operated and walks like other children?” she says.
“Dharmesh was elected from the Chandni Chowk ward of the nagarpalika, where 50 per cent of the voters are Muslims. Without the support of Muslims, he wouldn’t have got elected from this seat. And the Muslims would not have voted for him if they thought he was among the killers. This case is all about politics and it has left us helpless,” says Jigna.
Dharmesh’s father Natubhai had left the farm work to Dharmesh after he suffered a heart attack a few years ago. Now, he says, he’ll have to get back to work.
Atul Dahya Patel, 42
On Monday, the day the special court in Anand held Atul guilty of arson, loot and rioting in the Ode case, his son Savan reached late for his class XII practical exams. Nobody in the family was free to drop him to school and he had to take a bus.
Three days later, Atul was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years. Atul’s wife Chandrika and children Savan and Pooja live in the family home at Purnima Chowk, opposite the site where the 23 Muslims were burnt alive. With Atul in jail, it’s his brother Dilip who has had to shoulder the responsibilities of the family.
“It has been very tough. Besides the cost of fighting the case, we also have to spend money on our children’s education. Even after he got bail in the case, my husband and many others were declared tadipaar (extern). I do not know what this means, only that he did not come home for three months,” she says.
Dilip, who now supervises work on the family’s five bighas, says, “We have been branded communal, as people who killed Muslims. But for years, we’ve been sharing water from our borewell with Muslim farmers. We still have good relationships with the Muslims of our village,” he says.
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