One certainty: Those missing since 2002 have been declared dead

It is now seven years since a train compartment caught fire at Godhra on February 27, 2002, and riots erupted across the state in its aftermath. The special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court to investigate some of the riot cases, has arrested some people who allegedly played ‘key’ roles in three massacres that occurred in the city on February 28, 2002.

What is, however, surprising is that the investigating team has not been able to establish with certainty the identity of some of the accused in at least three major riot cases — the Gulberg society massacre case, the Naroda Patiya massacre and the Naroda Gaam massacre case. The reason is that in some cases the accused are known only by the first name; in other cases, the SIT knows the accused either by their aliases, or by some unverifiable detail.

A source close to the SIT say that the reason for this is the inability of witnesses to point out exactly who was present in the mob that had indulged in arson and murder at the three riot sites. “In many cases, the witnesses were not able to identify the culprits. It’s not easy for a witness to identify every accused in a rioting mob,” the source said. “In some other cases, the witnesses had identified the accused only by their first names.”

Giving an example, another source said that witnesses in the Gulberg society massacre case had mentioned the name of an accused as just ‘Iniya’, which is why he has not been traced. “Iniya is charged with arsoning and rioting with the mob,” the source said.

In the Naroda Gaam case, a witness had identified an accused by the registration number of his scooter. “Anyone could have been using that scooter that day. The problem with such evidence is that they do not identify the accused with certainty,” the source said. “In such cases, the accused cannot be tracked down as their identities are not really known.” The source gave another example of a witness in the Naroda Patia case who had ‘identified’ nine people as the accused. “He said 4 of the accused were of Marathi origin, 4 were women and one was a youth with blue eyes,” the source said “It is difficult to track down people on the basis of such evidence.” 

Vivek Vijayapalan/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication