6 months later, nagging doubt: Whodunnit at Godhra?

Godhra’s Superintendent of Police Raju Bhargava traces the carnage to an altercation between kar sevaks on board the train and two tea vendors at the station. But passengers say the attack was unprovoked and premeditated.

That evening, the Government Railway Police lodge two First Information Reports (FIRs). The first (FIR no 9) pertains to the forcible stoppage of the train near Signal Falia and the torching of the S 6 coach. The complainant is the engine driver, Rajendra Singh. The investigators attach statements of around 400 persons, most of them VHP activists, to the FIR.

Rajendra Singh states that the train came to a stop due to a vacuum drop near Signal Falia, where he saw a mob of around 1,500 approach the train from the left side. Around 200 more people approached the train from the right end.

The other FIR (FIR no 10) pertains to another attack on the train and Railway Police Force (RPF) personnel a couple of hours after the S-6 burning. Two people were killed in police firing. The complainants in this FIR are the RPF personnel. The FIR names 32 accused. The case is yet to be subjected to a trial, though bail applications have come up for hearing on several occasions.

The Gujarat government, meanwhile, accuses the ISI of orchestrating the attack.

MARCH 1: The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the state police arrives in Godhra to support the Government Railway Police investigation.

MARCH 2: Based on the statements of VHP and BJP activists who claim to have been present at the railway station at the time of the attack, police arrest the Godhra municipality president and Congress-backed Independent councillor, Mohammad Hussain Kalota, along with Abdul Rahim Dantia, Zaheer Kala, Abdul Rauf and Siraj Abdul Jamsa. Police officials name another suspect: Haji Bilal, another Independent councillor.

MARCH 16: The ATS nabs Haji Bilal in Godhra. A look at his passport reveals that he visited Pakistan thrice—twice in 1992, once in 1993. ATS officials claim that Bilal could be in possession of a second, fake passport, further fuelling the ISI conspiracy theory.

Another significant suspect, who will soon overtake Haji Bilal in importance and notoriety is named: Razzak Kurkur, who owns a guesthouse in Signal Falia. According to the investigators, he’s responsible for stocking the petrol and carting it in a autorickshaw to A Cabin on the platform, where the coach was eventually torched. But police still haven’t got their hands on Kurkur yet.

MARCH 24: Following the interrogation of Bilal and Kalota, the GRP arrest two more accused, Irfan Pado and Qasim Biryani. GRP officials claim they too were part of the mob that targeted the S-6 coach.

APRIL 5: The GRP produce two activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India, Hasim Raza and Fardaus Ansari, who were separately arrested in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh and have been brought here on a transfer warrant. GRP officials claim that Hasim had telephoned several of the accused, including Haji Bilal and Kalota, after the carnage. GRP also claims that Raza was seen at Godhra on February 27.

MAY 3: A Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team carries out a simulated exercise at the Godhra railway station. The purpose: to recreate how the inflammable material had been doused onto the S 6 coach.

By now, the Gujarat Government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Assistant Commissioner of Police, Vadodara police control room, Noel Parmar is the Investigating officer, while DIG, Crime, Rakesh Asthana, is in charge.

MAY 23: The investigation switches tracks altogether. A preliminary chargesheet is filed against 56 accused, including Haji Bilal, Mohammad Kalota and Kurkur. Appended to the chargesheet is the FSL report, which states that more than 60 litres of petrol were used in setting the coach on fire. More importantly, the report states that the petrol had been poured from inside, not from outside as had been suspected all along.

Meanwhile, SIMI activists Raza and Ansari are released for lack of evidence. ‘‘There was no evidence of their involvement. They were brought here only to be released later,’’ says advocate Y A Charkha, who is representing more than 70 of the accused.

JUNE 2: News leaks out that the main accused, including Haji Bilal and Mohammad Kalota, are administered thiopental sodium—also known as Sodium Pentothal or truth serum—at the SSG Hospital in Vadodara, after which they sang out the names of 20 new accused who were part of a core team that torched the train. But investigators play down the ‘revelations’, say that in fact, the truth serum couldn’t extract important information.

JUNE 20: Some more accused, including Abdullah Badam, arrested. The special investigation team now indicates that Kurkur is a crucial missing link in the case. Badam also names Kurkur as being part of the mob.

JULY 7: The police theory of a ‘core team’ at work gets a boost from the testimonies of two vendors, including Ajay Baria, the assistant of a Muslim tea vendor, at the Godhra station before a judicial magistrate on July 7. According to Baria’s statement, 20-odd persons were involved in torching the coach. Baria allegedly told the police that Razzak Kurkur forced him to board the autorickshaw along with nine others and take the petrol cans to the A cabin; that he saw Kurkur near the guesthouse he owns—called Aman guesthouse near Godhra station—from where the petrol consignment was loaded in a rickshaw. Baria also reportedly says that he saw Ramzani Bin Yamin Behra, Hassan Ahmed Charkha and Mohammad Yaqoob Mitha entering the S 6 coach through a connecting galley.

However, Baria doesn’t name Kurkur as being part of the mob that set the S-coach 6 on fire. Also, his confessional statement, along with that of the other tea vendor, Anwar, doesn’t name any of the 54 accused who were arrested by the GRP on February 27.

JULY 10: The SIT arrests Ramzani Bin Yamin Behra, Hassan Ahmed Charkha and Mohammad Yaqoob Mitha on the basis of Ajay Baria’s confessional statement. Investigators claim that the three men confessed that at the behest of Kurkur, they had sprinkled petrol inside the coach.

JULY 15: The SIT moves an application for attachment of property in a court against 33 absconders, including Kurkur. By now, it has named Mehboob Latko, Shaukat Lalu, Irfan Palariya, Ramzan Bin Yamim Behra, Jabbar Yamin, Rassan Lalo, Rafiq Bhatko, Irfan Bhopa and Salim Badam as members of Kurkur’s ‘core team’. But the police still don’t have any material or documentary evidence against Kurkur.