India: Auto drivers, washerman, diamond cutters: Meet the life convicts in the Gulberg killings

The Indian Express

Auto drivers, washerman, diamond cutters: Meet the life convicts in the Gulberg killings
Indian Express goes to Ahmedabad’s Chamanpura, next door to Gulberg Society, and meet the families of the 11 convicts who have been sentenced to life for the murders of 69 persons, including former MP Ahsan Jafri, in the society in 2002.

Written by Satish Jha , Lakshmi Ajay , RITU SHARMA | Updated: June 21, 2016

Raju Ramavatar Tiwari’s wife Anita with her father-in-law Ramavatar Tiwari at their house at Chamanpura, Ahmedabad, next door to Gulberg Society. The 11 sentenced to life imprisonment were all residents of Chamanpura.

Raju Ramavatar Tiwari, 45
Labourer

Guilty of: Sparking chain of events of murder, carnage

Tiwari’s family lives in a one-room shanty. “With the court’s orders, we have lost all our remaining hope,” said Raju’s younger brother Narendra. “The maximum injustice was done to me,” said Anita Tiwari, Raju’s 32-year old wife, holding her seven-month-old son. “To my misfortune, Raju had to return to jail on the second day of his five-day parole on June 2,” Anita said, about their last meeting.

Anita said she had been abandoned by her family following her “love marriage” with Raju. She said she now runs the house from wages earned by doing domestic chores in other houses and embroidery work. Her daughters, 12 and 11, study in Classes V and IV at the municipal school. She said that Raju, who has five brothers and a sister, used to run a scrap shop and was also a daily-wage labourer. Raju’s family had migrated from Etawah in UP.
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Kailash Lalchand Dhobi, 36
Laundryman, autorickshaw driver

Guilty of: Killing 6 people, responsible for chain of events

He was the first to be picked up by police. Then 22, he has been in jail for 14 years. This January, he jumped parole but surrendered days before the sentencing. His 60-year-old mother, Shantaben, who irons clothes for a living, stays in a one-room home near Gulberg Society.

Shantaben said she had migrated from Chittorgadh in Rajasthan about 50 years ago, and that her husband Lalchand Dhobi, who died in 2004, was a labourer. Claiming that Kailash was innocent, Shantaben said she had been abandoned by her three sons and their families. “I saw Kailash when he came to meet me in January. Is he going to ever come out of jail? I am tired and sick,” she said.
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Yogendra Singh a.k.a. Lalo Mohansinh Shekhawat, 33
Autorickshaw driver

Guilty of: Killing 2 women, 2 children

One of the youngest among the accused at age 19 in 2002, he was picked up in 2008. At his two-storey house, his mother Maya, 60, claimed her only son was framed. “He was just a boy then. Why did the police pick up my son if there was mob of over 20,000?” said Maya, adding that the family migrated from a village near Jaipur in Rajasthan years ago.

Maya said Yogendra, who quit studies after class 10, got married about nine years ago, hoping that he would be acquitted. “We don’t have anything to do with any political party. We are poor people. My husband has been driving an autorickshaw to feed us.”
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Krishna Kumar a.k.a. Krishna Kalana, 36
Autorickshaw driver

Guilty of: Being part of mob that caught Ahsan Jafri

He was 22 in 2002, identified by witnesses as “son of Champaben”. Champaben, 60, has three sons. “My eldest son was a drunkard and about ten years back he went missing. My second son got paralysed about five years ago. Krishna, the youngest one, was my only hope,” she said. Champaben works as a sweeper at Shivam Nursing Home. “This nursing home is witness to that day when I saved two Muslims — a father and his son — from the mob. Yet, they framed my son.”
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Bharat Taili Shitalaprasad, 43
Oil seller

Guilty of: Killing 3 women

Bharat’s wife Rupmaben says after the Supreme Court-appointed SIT named him in the Gulberg case eight years ago, she has had to take charge of her three daughters, son and the small retail oil shop that her husband ran. Her elder daughters Kismat and Aarti were married off as soon as they turned 18. Youngest daughter Divya is a “non-regular student” who goes to school “only to appear for exams”.

Rupmaben claimed that on the day of the Gulberg, the family was in Beawar, Rajasthan, for her brother’s wedding from February 13-28, 2002.
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Naran Sitaram Tank a.k.a. Naran ‘Channelwalo’, 43
Cable operator

Guilty of: Leading mob that dragged Jafri out

The family stays in a housing society. Tank’s wife Ashaben said that their elder son Mahendra now takes care of his father’s cable business. “But we are still paying the fee installments of an MBA course which my son could never attend,” she said. Said Tank’s daughter-in-law Khushi: “My husband Mahendra always wanted to wait for his father to be freed before we got married. But he could made it to the engagement only on parole. My mother-in-law single-handedly got both her sons married. The younger son is a fitness instructor now and got married six months ago.”
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Bharat Laxmansinh Goud Rajput, 41
Diamond cutter

Guilty of: Killing 3 women

Gyan Kanwar, Rajput’s 80-year-old mother, claims her son is innocent. “He got caught in all this by mistake. He used to work in the diamond market. My husband died eight years ago out of the stress over my son’s future,” said Kanwar, head of a 15-member family. Rajput’s brother Mahendrasinh said the women of the house including Bharat’s wife now engage in cutting dates all day. Bharat’s son Harish, 11, recently operated for a hole in his heart, will need another surgery to correct a puncture that has developed now.

Jayeshkumar a.k.a. Gabbar Madanlal Jinger, 42
Shoe vendor

Guilty of: Killing a man, arson, burning bodies of victims

He was 28 in 2002 and been behind bars since then. His parents migrated from Rajasthan and belong to the cobbler community. His family members are currently street vendors. They refused to speak about Jayeshkumar or the family.

Dinesh Prabhudas Sharma, 40
Privately employed

Guilty of: Killing 2 women, 2 children

Krishna, Sharma’s elder sister, said she fainted on the court premises after the judgment on Friday.

“I am suffering from cardiac ailments and a spinal problem. My mother lost her mental stability and died in grief after her son’s arrest. After my father’s death in 2004, he was the only support for her. I am going insane, too,” said Krishna, at her mother’s one-room home.

Krishna is based in Navsari, and said Dinesh has another sister settled in Gandhinagar. She said Dinesh was a graduate in arts and was doing a private job till 2008. He got engaged in 2004 but his fiancee called off the engagement after waiting for five years for his name to be cleared, she said.

“Dinesh was also a kabaddi player who played at the state level. His name came up in the case after six-seven years. He himself went to the police station and surrendered believing that when he is innocent why should he fear or hide,” said Krishna.
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Lakhansing a.k.a. Lakhiyo Lalubha Chudasama
35 years, Diamond cutter and autorickshaw driver

Guilty of: Killing 2 women, 2 children

Lakhansing’s elder sister Pushpaben says the SIT arrested her brother in a case of mistaken identity, as her brother was away at Surendranagar on the day of the Gulberg killings. Lakhan was the mainstay of the family of eight, including his mother, an aunt, his elder sisters Bela and Pushpaben who are separated from their spouses, his wife and two separate twin sons. “The police say he has murdered and raped but where is the proof. Have they found his fingerprints?” said Pushpaben who has worked as a diamond cutter and now runs a parlour. Lakhan’s mother Indiraben says he was the only son, born after four daughters, after many prayers.

Jayesh Ramji Parmar, 35
Daily wager

Guilty of: Killing 4-5 women and children

His wife who is settled in Bapunagar said she would not talk to journalists.