The special trial court that pronounced the verdict in the Saradarpura massacre case on Wednesday considered the testimony of all the key witnesses.
The special trial court that pronounced the verdict in the Saradarpura massacre case on Wednesday considered the testimony of all the key witnesses. However, it also found that several witnesses had given exaggerated accounts of events while the statements of many others contradicted each other.
In its judgment, the court has said that statements alleging that the accused had set up tube-lights to get some light at the place where people were burnt alive were exaggeration of fact. The court held the same view of statements about live electric wire left in the open to given victims electric shocks. But even these testimonies were not totally disregarded by the court.
One eyewitness, Sabirhusen Shaikh, had stated during his deposition that the accused had gone to an electric pole and connected a tube light to the power line in preparation for the attack. The court disregarded his account saying that it was exaggerated.
Similarly, the statement of Jakirhusen Shaikh was also considered exaggerated. Shaikh had survived by fleeing into a field and hiding there till the police arrived. He had alleged that Kanti Patel, Jaga Patel and Upendra Manilal were instigating the mob and that he had seen them doing so as he fled into the field.
But Shaikh failed to identify the three people in court. Hence the court considered his statement as an exaggeration of the truth.
The court found several statements of even those witnesses who were inside the house that was attacked by the mob, to be exaggerated and contradictory. Ayubmiya Shaikh, a key witness, had stated that when the mob attacked, they requested the rioters with 'folded hands' to let them go but they were not allowed to leave.
The court observed that the evidence about 'folded hands' had been made up to deliberately prejudice the court. But the court disregarded the exaggeration and accepted his evidence. Similarly, the court also found the statement of Basirabibi Shaikh as an exaggeration. She had told the court that she was inside the house when she saw the mob surround Mahemudmiya's house from all sides.
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