Author: Leena Misra
Publication: The Times Of India
(Ahemadabad Ed)
Date: May 29, 2002
Three months after the Godhra carnage
which claimed 59 lives, the investigations are expected to take the State
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to Mumbai where some of the main
accused, all belonging to Godhra, are said to have taken sanctuary.
This leads the investigators to
believe that many of the accused may have links with the underworld, especially
after it was found that one of the accused in the Chhota Rajan shootout
in Bangkok a year ago, belonged to Godhra!
Although the chargesheet against
the 57 accused books them under sections 143, 147, 148 (rioting), 436 (arson),
302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120B (conspiracy), the investigators
have yet to find substantial evidence on the conspiracy theory. Officials
argue, ''There won't be anything in writing to indicate that it was a conspiracy
unless someone confesses.''
At this point, the police is on
a look out for 44 of the absconders including Razzak Kurkur who was booked
for murder in 1982 and is a resident of the infamous Signal falia housing
Ghanchi Muslims. ''Kurkur is the self-styled leader of the unlicensed tea
vendors on the railway station and ran several illegal activities there,''
says a senior CID (crime) officer.
