For photographer R.K. Soni, it was a routine assignment from Limkheda police that took him to the jungles in March 2002. There were bodies to be photographed and he would be dropped back home. As usual, the policemen did not tell him about the case.‘‘It was only when I read Bilkis’ interviews in the newspapers months later that I related the case to that assignment,’’ Soni told The Indian Express at his small shop where he sells newspapers and stationery and takes up assignments.‘‘I wasn’t present at the burial as I was escorted home after my work was over,’’ said Soni who’s been taking photographs for Limkheda police for around 10 years. In the last week of January, the CBI team investigating the rape and murder of Bilkis Yaqub Rasool’s family visited his shop. Soni said they questioned him and asked for the photographs and negatives related to the case.‘‘They searched my shop and took all that they needed, including the bag in which I keep my camera, photographs and equipment,” he said.It was the first visit from police on the case after they took him to the forests on March 5 two years ago. Limkheda SI Saiyed and a head constable came to his house in two vehicles and asked him to accompany them. ‘‘They didn’t tell me where we were going,’’ Soni said. ‘‘We reached the jungles near Singhwad village and there were seven bodies strewn around the banks of a seasonal rivulet.’’Soni took separate photographs of each of the bodies — three men, two women and two girls — but does not remember the injuries they bore. All the bodies were covered with clothes.A Limkheda police officer said Soni was their usual inquest photographer and he had submitted to them the prints from the assignment. The photos were handed over when the state government transferred the case to the CID (Crime) branch. It was from the CID that the CBI had taken the prints after the Supreme Court asked it to investigate the case. The CID also directed the CBI to Soni.
