The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) intends to drag three Hindu witnesses to court for alleged perjury in the controversial murder case of British nationals near Prantij in Sabarkantha during the 2002 riots.

Kalusinh Makwana, Badarsinh Makwana and Dalpat had recently retracted their earlier statements before designated judge HP Patel at Himmatnagar.

The three had named Mitha Patel, Chandu Patel, Praveen Patel, Manoj Patel, Rajesh Patel and Kala Patel as accused in the case when they gave their statements before the then investigating officer, Inspector D K Vankar, in April 2002.

According to the details of the case, on February 28, 2002, British national Imran Dawood, then a boy of 18, had made his maiden visit to India along with his UK-based uncles —Saeed Dawood, Shakeel Dawood and Mohammed Aswat.

The four had toured Jaipur and Agra, and were returning to their native village Lajpur near Prantij in Sabarkantha district where a mob blocked their way and set ablaze their Tata Sumo. Saeed and Aswat along with their Gujarati driver Yusuf Piraghar were hacked to death, while Shakeel went missing. It is presumed he is dead.

Imran was seriously injured and was rescued by the Prantij police. The boy was later made a complainant in an FIR lodged in connection with the case. The case (26/02 of Prantij police station) is among the nine riot cases being further investigated by the SIT.

In 2005, DySPs J R Prajapati and H L Chaudhary recorded the statements of the three witnesses again, who endorsed their earlier statements recorded by Vankar.

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