Ode verdict: The murder that was not taken seriously

While relatives of 23 people, who were burnt alive in Ode on March 1, 2002, seemed satisfied over the court verdict, one family on the other part of the village, Surivali Bhagol, has no reason to celebrate.

Saiyed Rafique Mohammad, son of Saiyed Ghulam Rasool is a disappointed man.

Rafique’s father was burnt alive in front of his home by a mob on March 2, 2002 and he and his 15-year-old daughter Farida were the only witnesses to the event. Now Rafique and Farida are facing charges of turning hostile to the murder.

Rafique claims that the investigating agencies, including the special investigation team (SIT), did not bother to take his father’s case seriously. “First the police and then the SIT did not consider my father’s murder as a separate case from the killing of 23 people at Peeravali Bhagol. Both incidents occurred at different places, different time and on different days, so there should be two separate FIR, but still the police and investigating agencies included my father’s murder in the same case,” said Rafique.

He added, “The SIT called me and my daughter for recording statements. I gave names of 13 people whom we saw in the mob killing my father, in writing. They did not give us copy of our statement. We came to know about it when something else in our name was put by the SIT in the court as our statements. They mentioned the name of 15 people, involved in the incident of Peeravali Bhagol, as the members of the mob, who killed my father.”

Rafique had given names of 13 people out of which two were also accused in the killing of 23 people. But those two people have been acquitted in the verdict.

“The real killers of my father are still moving freely in the village and some other people have been fixed for the same,” he said.