March 2010 
Year 16    No.149
Cover Story


Kidnapping and torture  

The SIT threatens prosecution witness

BY TEESTA SETALVAD

If confirmation were needed that something is seriously wrong with the functioning of the RK Raghavan-led SIT, appointed to monitor and aid the justice process in Gujarat, Ilyas Hussain Mulla’s application – filed before the apex court as part of CJP’s wider application against the SIT’s unprofessionalism – certainly confirms it.

Mulla, a prosecution witness in the Godhra train burning case, makes a strong case against illegal functioning and torture by SIT officials. The witness has no criminal record. He was in Palej, 150 km away from Godhra, on the day the train burning incident took place and therefore has no connection at all with what transpired.

However, after July 2002, when he was first illegally detained by the Gujarat police in Godhra and then tortured by (DIG) Rakesh Asthana, (SP) JK Bhatt, (DySP) Noel Parmar, (Senior PI) Girwan Singh Solanki, (PSI) Karim Polar and other police persons for 27 days at the State Reserve Police camp in Godhra – torture which included severe beatings and electric shocks being administered to his private parts – he has been forced to fall in line with a concocted case being drummed up by the state of Gujarat.

Shockingly, the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court has persisted with the same brutal and illegal techniques employed by the Gujarat police, casting a slur on the reputation of its chairperson, RK Raghavan.

After he was severely tortured, in 2002 Mulla agreed to “confess”, implicating himself and other persons even before the judicial magistrate. While recording his statement under Section 164 of the CrPC, the judicial magistrate, Godhra, did not bother to record, as mandated by law, the witness’s version, about coercion or force being used. Mulla was thereafter forced by the Godhra police to go and live in Anand until the torture marks, visible on his body, had faded.

However, on January 21, 2006, after the constitution of the Justice Banerjee Commission to investigate the Godhra incident, Mulla filed an affidavit describing what he had undergone.

The SIT was expected to investigate the Godhra incident fairly and professionally. What does it do instead? Guided by Modi’s poster-boy policeman, Shivanand Jha, who is also the SIT member in charge of the Godhra and Odh investigations, the SIT ignored two applications, dated April 12, 2008 and April 27, 2008, which Mulla sent the SIT. However, it was the SIT’s subsequent conduct that is particularly scandalous.

On February 15, 2010, at around 9 p.m., Ilyas Hussain Mulla was contacted by a police constable named Kaushik and Kalubhai Ahmad Sheikh, a police informer. They also contacted Anwar Kalander, another witness in this case. Mulla and Anwar were asked to go to Sheikh’s house. When Anwar arrived there, he was served with a notice stating that he was to appear before the additional sessions judge in Sabarmati jail for witness examination the next day.

No summons notice was served on Mulla. He was given a letter, dated February 15, 2010 and signed by the assistant police subinspector, SIT, Godhra, which contained a communication, ostensibly by Mulla’s wife, stating that the witness was unable to accept summons, since he was not in town. In the letter, the name of Mulla’s wife was recorded as Farida when in fact his wife’s name is Rehana. Refusing to sign this communication, Mulla asked Sheikh for a copy of the summons. Then, when threatened with dire consequences, Mulla slipped out of Sheikh’s home to escape the two men.

When Mulla did not return as asked, with his wife’s signature affixed to the letter, he received a call, the first of many, on his mobile phone (number +91-9714629373) from an undisclosed number. The call, as displayed on the handset of Mulla’s phone, was made from a “Private Number”. Mulla received approximately 12-15 such calls between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. on the night of February 15-16, 2010. He was threatened again, over the phone, and told that the summons would be served on him 15 days later. He did not however return the letter.

Instead, at around 11 p.m. Mulla faxed a copy of the above-mentioned letter along with a handwritten letter dated February 15, 2010, addressed to the additional sessions judge at Sabarmati Central Jail. In his letter, Mulla described the entire incident and also stated that he would be present for witness examination on February 16, 2010 (i.e. the following day). That day Mulla was in fact present at the Sabarmati Central Jail where he was scheduled to appear before the judge. He made an entry in the jail register at 10:10 a.m., recording his arrival at the jail premises.

Anwar, the other witness in the case, also arrived at the jail around the same time. About 15 minutes later both Mulla and Anwar were taken out of the jail. Mulla then made another entry in the jail register, this one recording his exit from the jail. Members of the SIT then made both men sit within the precincts of the jail for almost an hour. They then took Anwar into the jail for witness examination, after which he was made to wait within the jail premises until 3 p.m.

During this time Mulla was repeatedly threatened by the SIT police, senior police inspector Raoul and constable Natu, and asked why he had sent the fax message to the judge the previous night. (Footage recorded by the CCTV system at the Sabarmati Central Jail confirms Mulla’s presence there.) He was now very frightened and, using a mobile phone belonging to another visitor to the jail, called his wife and narrated the entire incident to her. Mulla also asked her to send a fax to the additional sessions judge, stating that if he (Mulla) did not return home that night, he was afraid that he might be subjected to torture and other atrocities by members of the SIT.

At around 3:15 p.m. Mulla, who had been detained by the SIT police, was taken away in a white Tata Sumo bearing the number 4448; he was handcuffed. On reaching Subhash Bridge, he was transferred to a white car bearing the number 3357. In the car were three police officers, including Raoul. Mulla was taken to a spot near a highway hotel and here he was severely thrashed by Raoul and others who asked him why he had come to the jail. He was also told: “You will be killed in an encounter… Tell us the truth, who brought you here?” The SIT representative, Raoul, and others present abused Mulla, using filthy language, and Raoul started thrashing him with his belt. Raoul demanded to know how Mulla had dared to fax the letter to the judge.

At some point while Mulla was being tortured, Raoul received a call on his mobile phone to which he responded, saying, “Noel Sahib, Mulla is with me.” Raoul seized all the documents, original and photocopies, that Mulla had on him. At around 8:00 p.m. a silver Tata Sumo (number GJ 20 7800) drove up and Mulla was put into it and taken along a route that traversed Nadiad-Dakor-Narmada Canal-Timba-Kakanpur. In the car, police inspector Solanki was constantly on the phone and addressed the person at the other end as: “Mothaliya Sir, we are reaching.” (JR Mothaliya, superintendent of police, Panchmahal, is the investigating officer in this case.)

Around midnight Mulla was taken to a government Circuit House near Shehra, about 20 km away from Godhra. There he was severely beaten by Mothaliya, some commandos and other officers and again questioned about why he had faxed the letter to the judge, why he had named Kalubhai Ahmad Sheikh in the letter, why he had mentioned that the call came from a private number and so on. Mothaliya, acting for the SIT, also threatened Mulla repeatedly. He told Mulla that if he did not record the same statement as he had in his earlier “confession” before the judicial magistrate, he would be arrested as an accused in the same case. Mothaliya warned Mulla that he would have to spend eight years in jail just as the accused in the case were doing. He also warned Mulla that he was powerful enough to frame Mulla in cases of looting and robbery in Gujarat. Abusing Mulla, Mothaliya threatened him, saying: “This is your last day” and then forced Mulla to sign on sheets of blank paper.

The SIT’s investigating officer, JR Mothaliya, then forced the witness for the prosecution, Ilyas Hussain Mulla, to write two applications, one to the SIT chief, Raghavan, and the other to the additional sessions judge, retracting his earlier fax messages. At about 4:00 a.m. Mulla was taken in the same white Tata Sumo to police chowky number 7 (Godhra B Division police station) and made to sign the FIR book while he was still sitting in the vehicle. Mulla signed his name at two or three places in the FIR book. When Mulla asked Pargi (police inspector, Godhra B Division police station) what exactly the FIR that he was made to sign contained, he was abused and threatened. Police subinspector AV Parmar and the police informer, Kalubhai Ahmad Sheikh, were also present at the time. As it turned out, the concocted FIR was against Anwar, the other witness in the case.

From there Mulla was taken to the SP office where he was forced to sign more papers, some blank and others with something written on them. He was then kept in room number 15 at the Circuit House for the whole day. Mulla was given no water or food until February 17.

Some time later, after he got wind of the fact that his deposition had been scheduled for February 23, 2010, Mulla managed to escape, borrowing money from passers-by, and faxed a detailed handwritten note to the judge with a copy to the chief justice of the Gujarat high court and Raghavan (of the SIT). He also requested the judge, by fax, to help him, to save his life. He also stated that the letters he had signed the previous day had been signed under threat and coercion.

In his complaint to the judge, Mulla also said that if anything untoward happened to him, police officers Parmar and Mothaliya should be held responsible.

This shameful narrative exposes the SIT as nothing else does. It exposes the SIT as being hand in glove with the Gujarat police. Mulla has pleaded that the entire investigation into this sordid affair be handed over to the CBI. Both the Gujarat police and the SIT have violated Mulla’s fundamental rights and are responsible for torture and threats. Mulla’s petition will be heard along with CJP’s application before the Supreme Court in early April 2010.

 


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