SIT court criticizes Gulbarg massacre witness for 'selective amnesia'

AHMEDABAD: The special SIT court has severely criticized survivor-witnesses of the post-Godhra Gulbarg Society massacre by accusing them of deliberately forgetting certain events of the fateful day.
While handing down punishment to 24 convicts on Friday, designated judge PB Desai held that it was former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri whose gesture of opening fire from his private gun triggered violence.He observed that the eye witnesses chose to remain silent on this aspect.
"It is selective amnesia on part of all eye witnesses who claim to have seen and specifically pointed out in great detail each incident as it took place between 1.30 pm to 5 pm (on February 28, 2002), and the role played by each of the specific accused in such graphic detail, while conveniently losing all memory with regard to private firing from Jafri’s weapon, makes me come to conclusion that the testimony of all these witnesses is to be dealt with cautiously," the court order reads.
The judge has also termed Rupa Modi, whose 13-year old son Azhar has been missing since that day, an untrustworthy witness. The court dubbed her testimony as "untrue" and "uncorroborated" and an "afterthought".
In its more than 1,300-page judgment, the court said, "The testimony of Rupa Mody has to be taken with a pinch of salt, though she claims to be an eye witness who had taken shelter at Jafri’s residence, her versions are largely established to be untrue and uncorroborated."
The court further observed about Mody’s deposition, "She has attempted to rope in police inspector KG Erda, Atul Vaidya and Bharat Taili as an afterthought based on her testimony which refers to an incident she attempted to meet these accused in an effort to trace out her missing son."