Gujarat cops under SC scanner

Appearing for Bilkis, senior advocate Harish Salve alleged that on September 16, a police officer met her in Godhra at 10 pm and told her to accompany her at that hour to the forest where she was raped and several members of her family, including her son, were murdered during the riots last year. Though her husband was with her at the time, Bilkis is said to have been questioned by one Raju Bhargav of the state crime branch. She declined to accompany the police to the crime scene as no dead body or any other evidence was likely to be still there after 18 months.

In her application, Bilkis alleged that the police exerted pressure on her to accompany them even after she told them that she had nothing more to add to what she had already disclosed to the police on more than one occasion when the case was under investigation.

The state counsel sought to explain the incident by saying that following the court’s notice on September 8, the government shifted the case from the Dahod district police to the state crime branch. The bench, however said, ‘‘It would be appropriate for the state police to keep off her till the court decides her plea for transfer of the case to CBI.’’

The application said that taking her to the forest late in the night ‘‘could not have served any purpose except harassment of the petitioner. The conduct of the officer in insisting upon such a course defies reason and smacks of a deliberate ploy to terrorise her.’’ The officer again questioned her the next day and the local police ‘‘picked up’’ a cousin of her husband on the pretext of inquiring about the whereabouts of the other witnesses to the crime, she said.