By TCN Special Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: With the arrest of a former functionary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), Raees Khan, along with three others on Wednesday in connection with exhuming the bodies of those killed in Panderwada village during 2002 anti-Muslim riots, the police seem to be laying trap for CJP general secretary Teesta Setalvad who has emerged as the face of the fight against the Narendra Modi government, seeking justice for the Muslim victims.
Speaking to mediapersons after arresting Khan, Habib Rasool Saiyed, Qutubshah Ayyubshah Diwan and Sikander Abbas Sheikh, investigating officer P C Joshi said that police would go to the root of the issue and find out who was the main conspirator and motivated these persons to exhume the bodies and tried to destroy the evidence. The social and human rights activist explains this statement of the police as its bid to lay trap for Setalvad and arrest her in the case with a view to weaken the fight for justice for the riot victims.
Khan was sacked from CJP two years ago on several charges. After remaining silent for some time, Khan launched a campaign against Setalvad. His arrest along with four others in Panderwada case is reported to be a part of an alleged design to trap Setalvad.
When the bodies of 28 persons, out of 32 killed in Panderwada on March 1, 2002, were not found, CJP began a hunt for the missing bodies. He came to know that bodies had been buried clandestinely in the riverbed near Lunawada, about 30 kms away. Khan, assisted by relatives of the victims, exhumed the bodies in January 2006 and eight of them were identified with DNA tests conducted at Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Hyderabad. They were again buried after proper Islamic rituals.
But Raees and others invited wrath of the Modi government. An FIR was lodged on January 16, 2006, in Lunavada police station against six persons, including Khan, on charges of destroying evidence.
Fearing their arrest, they moved Godhra sessions court and secured an anticipatory bail. But the state government challenged it in the Gujarat high court and the later on April 5, 2006, asked the six persons to report to the police between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on April 7, 2006. The police recorded their statements but released them as they were armed with anticipatory bail. But the same day around 6 p.m., the then investigating officer J R Muthaliya moved an application before the Santrampur court seeking their remand. The Santrampur court issued notice to all the six accused, directing them to appear in the court on April 17, 2006. When they did not appear before the court, the Santrampur court issued arrest warrants against them all.
Khan and others then moved the Gujarat High Court, seeking quashing of the FIR and stay against their arrest. The court then stayed whole proceedings in the case. As Khan fell out with Setalvad, one of the accused in Panderwada case Mehboob Rassol Chauhan filed an application before the high court on November 24, 2010, withdrawing his petition through which he and others had sought quashing of the FIR. The high court then lifted the stay on the proceedings in the case.
With this development, the arrest warrant against the six issued earlier by Santrampur court came into operation. Khan and three others were then picked up and arrested by Lunavada police on Wednesday and produced in the court. They were remanded to police custody till December 16. Two others — Ghulam Kharadi and Chauhan–are yet to be arrested.
Earlier, Khan had moved an application in a court in Ahmedabad alleging that Setalvad had fabricated affidavits in the name of riot victims, particularly in Naroda Patia and Gulberg Society mass massacre cases. Khan also recently deposed before the Nanavati Commission probing the Godhra and post-Godhra riots, despite the fact Setalvad had opposed Khan’s deposition before the commission.
All the 21 accused in the Panderwada massacre were acquitted by the Godhra sessions on October 29, 2002, for want of evidence. A senior police official in a report submitted to the state government had stated that the Panderwada case fell because of laxity in investigations by the police.