Sardarpura survivor breaks down in court

Tears welled up in the eyes of Ibrahim Shaikh when the prosecution lawyer showed him clothes of his dead daughter. Shaikh, a victim and key witness in the Sardarpura massacre case in which 33 persons were killed, was recording his statement at the fast-track court of judge SC Srivastava in Mehsana on Thursday.

Shaikh lost 11 members of his family, including his wife and two minor children, on the night of March 1-2, 2002 in Sardarpura village in Mehsana district. They were among the 33 Muslims who were locked up in a room and burnt alive by the mob.

Prosecution lawyer Suresh Shah said, "Shaikh was recording his statement in the court and when the court asked him to identify the accused in the case, he singled out 26 accused present in the court." However, when the court showed him certain articles recovered after the mayhem, which included the blood-soaked clothes of his daughter, he couldn't control his tears. The court was adjourned for two minutes and later Shaikh deposed his statement.

Meanwhile, the prosecution also submitted the affidavit, application and FIR filed by the victims before the designated court. The victims had filed the affidavit before the Supreme Court, requesting to transfer the case from the state in 2003 as they feared they would not get justice in Gujarat. The application relates to the victims' statement recorded before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). 

There are 73 accused in the case, but only eight accused are in jail. Most of the others are out on bail.  The prosecution lawyer also submitted articles (moodamall) recovered from the spot, which included swords, axes, sticks, iron pipes and kerosene and petrol containers.

Earlier, a witness in the case, Sabirmiya Akumiya, had told the court that BJP leaders had visited the village much before the Godhra carnage, indicating a build-up to the massacre.
Sabirmiya, who used to work at the Sardarpura waterworks at the time of the incident, was present at the spot when the mob started gathering.

However, when the killing began, he fled to save his life. Sabirmiya identified 17 persons from the mob before the court. When asked about the riots, he told the court that the then BJP MLA from Godhra, Haresh Bhatt, had addressed a gathering in Sardarpura in February 2002, just 15 days before the Godhra carnage.

Sabirmiya had told the court, and earlier made a statement before the SIT, that Bhatt had distributed tridents to the villagers who participated in the gathering.