2002 Pranjit riots: Court rejects SIT plea seeking to recall British national

During court proceedings last year, it was found that the transcript was not properly made due to his “peculiar accent”.

A Himmatnagar district court on Thursday rejected an application of the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) seeking permission to recall the complainant and the key witness, Imram Dawood, in the Prantij riot case of 2002 in which British nationals were killed.

The SIT, probing the case, had sought permission to record a fresh statement of Dawood after it found that the transcription made from his earlier deposition recorded through video conferencing from London in 2010 was not accurate. During court proceedings last year, it was found that the transcript was not properly made due to his “peculiar accent”.

A court order of November 2013 states, “.it appeared that due to the peculiar accent of the PW-68 (Dawood) in some places, proper words are not correctly transcribed in the transcript, which may change the whole tenor of the deposition recorded through video conference from London.”

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“The court rejected our application saying at the time of deposition nobody objected and it was found to be satisfactory and the accused persons accepted the transcript. The court has accepted the first transcript prepared by the Forensic Laboratory (Gandhinagar),” said special public prosecutor of SIT R C Kodekar. In 2002, Dawood, a UK national, had visited India for the first time, along with his UK-based uncles, Saeed Dawood, Shakeel Dawood and Mohammed Aswat. On February 28, a day after Sabarmati Express train carnage incident, they were returning to their native village Lajpur, near Navsari in south Gujarat, when a mob attacked them near Prantij highway.
Saeed, Shakeel and Aswat Nallabhai, and their driver Yusuf Sulaiman were burnt to death on the National Highway-8 by the mob while Dawood suffered injuries and was saved by the patrolling police team.

Britain has been pushing for speedy justice in this case, with the latest being British foreign secretary William Hague raising the issue before Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj during his visit to India in July. On the other hand, the Supreme Court in August had directed the court to wrap up the case in three months and the deadline ended on November 25. The court has sought an extension to complete the proceedings.

Two former UK diplomats also testified through video conferences, including former Deputy British High Commissioners Ian Reakes and Howard Parkinson. Following Dawood’s application, the Himmatnagar court examined the duo. It was Reakes who was present with the investigating officer during the collection of evidence.

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