2002 riots: Witnesses depose in British nationals killing case

In a significant development,the special fast-track court has recorded oral evidence of two witnesses one each from the United Kingdom...

In a significant development,the special fast-track court has recorded oral evidence of two witnesses one each from the United Kingdom (UK) and Dubai through video-conferencing in the 2002 British nationals killing case, one of the nine Gujarat riots cases investigated by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team.

While Mohammed Imran Dawood is based in the UK,Mohammed Bilal Dawood is from Dubai. Imran,then 18,was seriously injured in the incident and was rescued by police. He was later made a complainant in the case.

Since Imran refused to come to Gujarat to get his statement recorded as he was still under trauma,SIT officials had recorded his statement in Mumbai.

Since Imran and Bilal reside abroad and it is a very lengthy and expensive procedure to call them as witness in the trial court,it was decided to record their deposition through video-conferencing after getting the consent of their Mumbai-based lawyer, said SP Himanshu Shukla,the investigating officer in the case. He said this was for the first time in Gujarat that depositions of witnesses from foreign countries made last week had been recorded through video-conferencing in a criminal case.

Special public prosecutor Ajay Choksi said Bilal had brought a team of British Consulate to Gujarat for identification of a skeleton found in Sabarkantha district. Scientific tests had established identity of one of the two persons who had gone missing.

Six persons are facing trial in the case.

In 2002,Imran came to India along with his UK-based uncles Saeed Dawood,Shakeel Dawood and Md Aswat. When they were returning to their native village Lajpur in Gujarat after visiting Jaipur and Agra on February 28,2002,around 20 people stopped their car near Prantij in Sabarkantha,attacked it and set it ablaze. Saeed and Aswat were killed along with the local driver,Yusuf Piraghar,whereas Shakeel went missing and is now presumed dead.