SIT gets custody of Imran Bhatuk till July 28

Vadodara: The prime accused in the 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage in Godhra, Imran Ahmed Bhatuk, was remanded to the custody of the special investigation team (SIT) till July 28 for interrogation.
Bhatuk was nabbed on Tuesday by the Ahmedabad crime branch from Malegaon in Maharashtra.
Bhatuk was presented before the railway magistrate at Vadodara on Thursday morning and a remand was sought for his interrogation.Besides questioning Bhatuk regarding the details of the traing burning case, the investigators will also try to find out who gave him shelter after he was named as an accused in the case. An identification parade will also be conducted to ascertain his identity.
Bhatuk was not named as an accused in the first chargesheet filed in connection with the case but his name was added in the second chargesheet after statements of witnesses named him, sources said. He was on the run ever since and had initially moved to Dhulia in Maharashtra.
SIT sources said that Bhatuk, who was unmarried, had stayed in Dhulia for about six years and fell in love with a woman there whom he later married. The couple now have three daughters. After Dhulia, Bhatuk moved to Malegaon in Maharashtra from where he was arrested.
Before leaving Godhra, Bhatuk used to stay with his family in the Meda Plot area. His family had a clothes shop where Bhatuk also worked.
SIT sources said that Bhatuk was the 125th accused to be arrested in connection with the carnage case. Amongst the key accused he is the second person to be arrested after Farooq Bhana who was arrested in May this year from Mumbai.
The carnage on February 27, 2002, had left 59 persons dead triggering widespread communal violence in the state. A trial court had earlier acquitted 63 persons in the case and held 31 guilty in 2011. Of the 31, 20 were awarded life imprisonment while 11 were sentenced to death. Appeals have been filed in the Gujarat high court after the verdict.