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Eyewitness testimonies proved crucial

Meena Menon

Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and family members were massacred during post-Godhra riots

— AFP

A file photo of Bilkis Bano with her child and husband Yakub Rasool.

MUMBAI: Twelve persons, including a policeman, were on Friday convicted of gang rape of Bilkis Bano and massacre of the other members of her family during the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002.

Bilkis, then five months pregnant, and her family were set upon by two jeeploads of men from Randhikpur village in Dahod district on March 3, 2002. Four women and four children were killed and six went missing in one of the worst incidents in the communal carnage.

Seven acquitted

One of the accused, Naresh Kumar Mordhiya, died during the trial. Seven persons including police officials and doctors were acquitted.

The court will decide the quantum of sentence on January 21. The sessions court conducted the trial in Mumbai after the Supreme Court shifted the case from Gujarat by its August 6, 2004 order. The entire case was reinvestigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation as per the apex court’s directions.

The 12 persons held guilty by Special Judge U.D. Salvi are Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai, Shailesh Bhatt, Radhyesham Bhagwan Das Shah, Bipin Chandra Joshi, Kesarbhai Vohania, Pradeep Mordhiya, Bakabhai Vohania, Rajubhai Soni, Mitesh Bhatt, Ramesh Chandana, and Somabhai Gori, head constable of the Limkheda police station in Dahod district.

Eleven accused were held guilty under Sections 120 read with 143, 147, 148, 302, 376, 201, 217 and 218 of the Indian Penal Code. Apart from murder, gang rape and rape of a pregnant woman, the charges included rioting with deadly weapons, causing disappearance of evidence and unlawful assembly.

Gori was convicted under Sections 217 and 218 of the IPC for refusing to record Bilkis’ first complaint and framing incorrect records to save the accused from punishment.

During the in-camera trial, which began on February 21, 2005, the court examined 73 prosecution witnesses and 10 defence witnesses.

According to the charge sheet, Bilkis, then 22, a resident of Singwad, Randikhpur village, was staying with her husband in Devgarh Baria in Dahod district. On February 24, she, along with her husband and three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Saleha, was at her father’s house at Singwad to celebrate Bakrid.

On February 28, a mob, which included the 12 accused from Singwad, set fire to the houses of Muslims and looted and destroyed property. Bilkis and her family left the place to save their lives, and 16 of them moved from village to village. Dressed like Adivasis, they reached Chapparwad village and took shelter on a field, which was connected with a kutcha road leading to Pannivella village.

At 11 a.m. on March 3, 2002, about 30 armed persons, including the main accused, came in two white jeeps. They identified Bilkis as she was from their village and assaulted the group. According to Bilkis, Shailesh Bhatt forcibly took Saleha from her and smashed the child to the ground, killing her. Then she was stripped and gang-raped by Jaswant Nai, Govind Nai and Naresh Kumar Mordhiya (since dead). Her pleas that she was pregnant fell on deaf ears and she fell unconscious.

On regaining consciousness, she found that her family members were dead. She hid herself in a nearby hillock and later found some Adivasis who gave her clothes.

A home guard took Bilkis to the Limkheda police station where, however, Gori threatened her that she would be given a poisonous injection if she spoke about the incident. He did not take down her complaint but prepared a false account of the incident.

However, two witnesses, who took refuge from the riots, heard the whole thing and their testimony became crucial to the case.

The prosecution pointed out the casual approach of the police and medical officers, whose records did not show the right entries or dates. The injuries suffered by Bilkis were also not recorded properly. It was only after she was taken to the Godhra relief camp did District Collector Jayanti Ravi meet her and take up her case.

In the photographs of the bodies, Saleha was missing. The CBI noted that her body was deliberately removed. On the Supreme Court order, the CBI exhumed the bodies, which were buried away from the scene of crime. But in none of the seven bodies, the skull was present.

While the prosecution tried to disprove Bilkis’ statement on where the incident happened, the court found clinching evidence to show that it could not have taken place where the bodies were buried. None of the bodies had footwear, which was later found at the scene of the incident and identified by Bilkis.

The eyewitness testimonies of both Bilkis and a young boy were crucial to the case. Both identified the accused and the boy corroborated Bilkis’ evidence and also testified that his mother was killed before his eyes.

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