Court rejects plea to reexamine UK national in Gujarat riots case

AHMEDABAD: A special court, hearing a case related to killing of three British nationals at Prantij during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, today rejected the special investigation team's request seeking reexamination of the complainant.

The Supreme Court-appointed SIT had sought to reexamine complainant and witness Imran Dawood, who too is a UK national, saying the transcription of his earlier testimony was not understandable in some places because of his English accent.

However, district judge I C Shah of Himmatnagar court rejected the plea, saying neither the prosecution nor the defence had raised this issue when the witness deposed.

The arguments on the basis of his deposition were at advanced stage now, so there was no point in raising the issue, the court said.

On February 28, 2002, a day after Godhra train burning incident, Imran Dawood, his uncles Saeed Dawood, Shakeel Dawood and Mohammad Aswat were attacked by a mob in Prantij town of Sabarkantha district in Gujarat.

Saeed, Shakeel, Aswat and their car driver Yusuf Piraghar (a local) were burnt alive, while Imran managed to save himself with police's help.

He recorded his testimony from UK in April 2010 through video conferencing.