Ode in Gujarat has a 10-year odyssey for justice

The riots reached Ode in Anand district a day after Ahmedabad burnt. Communal violence had broken out in Ahmedabad city on February 28, 2002 just one day after the train fire at Godhra in which 58 karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were burnt to death.

The atmosphere in Ode had also become tense after news of the Godhra train fire reached the village but there was no hint of the murderous attacks on Muslims that would claim 23 lives on March 1, 20012.

In hindsight, it seems only Muslims were unaware of the coming attacks. The systemic destruction of more than 200 Muslim properties while properties belonging to Hindus remained untouched, roadblocks put up in Ode to prevent fire-engines from entering the village and, later, when violence had broken out, the fire-brigade's willingness to withdraw even when there were no policemen in sight - all point to a degree of planning that had escaped the Muslims of the area.

Even the district and sessions court of Anand, which convicted 23 people for the Ode massacres, accepted the prosecution contention that a conspiracy had preceded the killings in Ode.
The violence began early in the morning of March 1, 2002, when a mob consisting of over 1,500 people began attacking and burning Muslim houses and property in the village. However, when the police intervened and opened fire killing a youth, Nishith Patel, the mob dispersed only to regroup to attack houses of the minority community in different localities.

The mob attacked the 20 or so Muslim houses that existed in Ode at the time. Members of several families fled their houses and took refuge in a three-storey house belonging to a one Akbarkhan Pathan and located in Pirawali Bhagol locality.

Mohammadkhan Pathan, who lost his mother, brother, sister, sister-in-law and a nephew and two nieces in the tragedy, is unable to forget the horror of that night. His wife, four daughters and two sons were fortunately at his in-law's place that day and were able to survive.

"I was able to escape death by jumping off the roof of our burning house. I ran for nearly 2 km after landing on the ground and hid on a farm," said Pathan, who was one of the key prosecution witnesses during the trial of the Ode riot case.

His father, Akbarkhan Pathan, was thrown back into the burning house by the mob when he tried to escape but he survived by locking himself in a bathroom. Akbarkhan died of natural causes last year.

Majidmiya Muradmiya too lost several members of his family. He says that relations between Hindus and Muslims in the village were very cordial, so much so that they used to attend each other's family functions. But now he does not want to return to the village.

Of the 23 people who were burnt to death, the bodies of only two - Sikandarmiya and his 2-year-old daughter, Guddi - could be recovered and identified. The others had been reduced to ashes.
Rioting continued the next day when a mob killed 80-year-old Gulam Rasool by throwing him on a garbage heap and setting it all on fire.

His son, Rafiq Mohammad, said they were at their house in Surivali Bhagol locality of the village when the funeral procession of Nishit Patel passed by. The mob accompanying the procession pulled the elderly Rasool out of the house and threw him on the garbage and burnt him to death. He remembers feeling utterly helpless as he saw his father die.

In yet another incident a few days later, three members of the minority community were killed in Ode by another riotous mob of Hindus.

The first FIR in the case was filed by Rafiq Bhai at Khambolaj police station on March 1, 2002. The police refused to file a separate FIR in connection with the death of Ghulam Rasool and clubbed his case with that of 23 people who had died a day earlier. The police, however, filed a separate chargesheet in his case.

The Ode killings were initially investigated by the local police. However, when the victims complained that the local police were not investigating the case properly, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) made a representation before the Supreme Court regarding the Ode case and other major cases of the Gujarat riots.
On November 11, 2003, the Apex Court stayed the trial of the case. Later it set up a special investigation team (SIT) for further investigation of all major riot cases. The trial commenced only on May 1, 2009 after an order by the Supreme Court.

An SIT member and senior Gujarat IPS officer supervising the investigation into the Ode and Godhra riot cases was removed by the Supreme Court by an order dated May 6, 2010.

The trial was first conducted by special judge SY Trivedi who charged 47 people with murder, conspiracy, rioting, unlawful assembly, attempt to murder and destruction of evidence.

One of the accused died during the trial while another went abroad after getting bail and has been evading trial. Another accused, Arvind Satabhai, was exonerated by the police as there was no evidence of his participation in the killings.

Judge Trivedi, who was transferred in March 2011 after hearing in the case was over, resigned from service citing personal reasons. Even the then public prosecutor in the case, CH Desai, quit.

Gujarat high court then appointed sessions judge Poonam Singh as special judge while the SIT chose the lawyer, PN Parmar, as special prosecutor for the case.

During the hearing, the special court upheld the prosecution's argument that communal violence in Ode town was part of a conspiracy. Special prosecutor Parmar drew the court's attention to the road blocks put up before the incident. He said this was not possible without a meeting of the minds.

The prosecutor further said that 274 properties in Ode were destroyed and all of them belonged to Muslims. Not one house or shop owned by a Hindu was targeted. He said that this suggests a conspiracy to implement the common plan of targeting Muslims.
Arguments in the case ended in December last year. A total of 158 witnesses were examined, including eyewitnesses Mohammadkhan Pathan, Mehrajbibi, Akbarkhan Pathan, Ayub Kasam, Mehmoodabibi, Shafimiya and others. The SIT submitted more than 160 documents as evidence in court. The prosecution based its case on the testimony of 12 key witnesses.

The judgement in the case was pronounced by special court judge Poonam Singh on April 9, 2002. Of the 47 accused in the case, 23 were found guilty while the rest 23 were acquitted.