UK national sought to be re-examined in Gujarat riots case

AHMEDABAD: The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team has sought to re-examine a witness in a case related to the killing of three UK nationals during the 2002 post-Godhra riots, as the earlier testimony was found to be difficult to understand because of the "accent".

The witness, Imran Dawood, too is a UK national. "We filed an application before the principal district judge I C Shah of Himmatnagar court on Wednesday and sought his re-examination," SIT's lawyer R C Kodekar said today.

Both the court as well as the SIT have doubted accuracy of the transcription of his earlier testimony. The SIT took the help of forensic experts but it did not yield any result, advocate Kodekar added.

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

Saeed, Shakeel, Aswat and their driver Yusuf Piraghar (a local person) were burnt alive, while Imran managed to save his life with the help of police.

Imran subsequently deposed in English before the court from UK in April 2010 through video conference. But in November 2013, the court said his accent was peculiar and some words had not been transcribed correctly.

Further hearing would be on November 15.