Cop threatened to eliminate me: Witness

A witness in the Godhra carnage case has alleged that a police officer threatened to kill him in an ‘‘encounter’’ or fix...

A witness in the Godhra carnage case has alleged that a police officer threatened to kill him in an ‘‘encounter’’ or fix him in the case if he deposed before the riots commission.

In an affidavit filed before the Justice G.T. Nanavati and Justice K.G. Shah Commission on Tuesday, Anwar Abdul Sattar Kalandar said he was threatened by Deputy Superintendent Noel Parmar, who is on the special investigating team set up for the case. Kalandar also filed an application seeking police protection, but the commission rejected it.

On March 21, the commission will hear an application to summon for deposition Kalandar and nine other witnesses in the case.

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Kalandar, a truck driver, met The Indian Express on the outskirts of the city. He said he was first contacted by police on March 5. ‘‘A policeman came to my house on March 5, gave me a cellphone number and asked me to call Parmarsaab. When I did, Parmarsaab asked me if I had deposed before the Banerjee commission, to which I said no. He asked me not to tell anyone about this conversation and asked me to meet him the next day, but I did not go,’’ Kalandar said.

He said the policemen again came and made him call up Parmar on March 13.

‘‘Parmarsaab told me he had information that I had deposed before the Banerjee commission. He said if I deposed before the Nanavati commission, or met anyone in this regard, he would have me killed in an encounter. I haven’t gone home since then,’’ he said.

Kalandar showed Express a phone booth bill of March 13 bearing a cellphone number that turned out to be Parmar’s. Though he didn’t have proof, he claimed he had talked to Parmar on the same number on March 5 too.

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Parmar said: ‘‘Though I don’t know anything about the affidavit filed before the Nanavati commission, all I can say is that the truth will be known.’’

Kalandar’s deposition before the Banerjee commission had put police in a fix. On October 24, 2004, he had stated on affidavit before the commission in Delhi that his statement on the train carnage case first recorded by police on September 24, 2002, and by a magistrate two days were made under threat.

He had said in the affidavit that the investigating team had illegally held him for four days and threatened that if he did not give the statement they wanted, he would be named as an accused and arrested. He had said police told him he could be fixed as his name resembled that of an absconding accused, Anwar Abdul Kalandar. This other Kalandar was arrested a few months back.