BJP, VHP men were not ‘witnesses of truth’

Supporters of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be shocked to learn that Judge PR Patel, the special judge who heard the Godhra train burning case, did not find the VHP’s ‘witnesses’ reliable.

The prosecution had produced as witnesses nine persons from the VHP and the BJP who claimed they had gone to the Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002, to serve tea and snacks to the kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya by the Sabarmati Express.

In his judgment, however, judge Patel has observed that these key VHP witnesses were not “witnesses of truth”.

The nine VHP and BJP members who were produced as witnesses by the prosecution are Janak Dave, Dipakkumar Soni, Chandrashankar Shenaiya, Manoj Advani, Rajesh Darji, Harsukh Advani, Nitin alias Kukul Pathak, Dilip Dasadiya and Murli Mulchandani. All of them gave testimonies before the special judge.

In his order, the judge has said that after a careful reading of their testimonies and other relevant evidence, it was clear that the facts narrated by them, “in their examination-in-chief”, could never be accepted as gospel truth.

“In other words, these witnesses cannot be termed as ‘witnesses of truth’ and this court has no option but to discard their evidence in totality,” judge Patel has said in his order. He has also given reasons, point by point, why the court was not relying upon the testimony of these nine witnesses.

He observed that no such welcome or offering of tea or breakfast, etc, had ever taken place at Godhra railway station prior to the date of incident.

“The normal arrival time of Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station was 2:55 am,” he has stated in his order. “This can be said to be the time for peaceful sleep during a journey, and can never be accepted as the proper time for welcoming or offering tea and snacks to kar sevaks.”     

His order further says that offering tea and snacks at 2:55 am would disturb the kar sevaks themselves, as also the other passengers.

There is nothing on record to show how and when these witnesses or any of them had come to know that the train was running behind schedule or about its approximate arrival time, the judge states in his order.

"No documentary evidence has been produced about the purchase of platform tickets by these witnesses on that day," the order says.

The court also found many contradictions in their accounts of prior meetings, place of meeting, the decision to welcome the kar sevaks, and the means by which that decision was communicated to them.

The judge also observed that their accounts about how they reached the railway station from their residence - whether by their own vehicles individually or by some other means, together- did not tally with each other.

The evidence given by the nine witnesses regarding purchase of garlands, breakfast, preparation of tea, the kettle, breakfast items, and the manner in which the food was packed, were all found to be contradictory.

The kar sevaks, too, did not make any mention in their testimony of the quarrel that allegedly look place between kar sevaks and vendors, or of kar sevaks misbehaving with Muslim girls.

During cross-examination, most of them expressed ignorance in this regard.

Some of the nine VHP witnesses were earlier involved in very serious offences and communal riots cases, the order states.

"There are material contradictions in their statements made before the police and the evidence before the court, about the place from where they, in fact, witnessed the incident of fire near 'A' cabin," the order says.

"None of them had sustained injuries of any kind. Many of them belong to the Sindhi community. In the past, communal riots had taken place between the Muslim Ghanchi and Sindhi communities. Some had political or business rivalry with the accused persons," the order says.

According to sources, out of the nine VHP witnesses, Raju Darji was the president of Godhra municipality and was toppled from power by the group led by Mohammad Hussain Kalota, an accused who has been acquitted after spending nine years in jail.

Darji is currently the sitting councillor. Dipak Soni was a councillor of Godhra municipality. Kukul Pathak is at present handling the media cell of the Godhra BJP. Janak Dave was a member of Godhra taluka panchayat and district convener of the media cell of the Panchmahals BJP.

Dilip Dasadia was the city's general secretary of Godhra BJP and the VHP worker who was declared hostile by the court. Manoj Advani, a VHP worker, had gone to the railway station to meet kar sevaks. Murli Mulchandani is the councillor of the Godhra municipality, Chandrashankar Shenaiya is a VHP worker, and Harsukh Advani is a BJP worker.