Godhra train burning case witness claims torture by Guj police

33-year old Ilyas Hussain Mulla, a resident of Godhra in Gujarat, who is here and is supported by an NGO ANHAD, has filed a petition in the Supreme Court pleading for a CBI probe into his case and for security.

"I don't know anything about Sabarmati Express burning case. When the incident took place, I was in Palej village which is more than 150 km away from Godhra," Mulla told PTI here.

Mulla, who works as a truck conductor, alleged that he wanted to appear before the court in Sabarmati jail, where trial is going, to tell the truth on this February 16, but personnel of the special investigation team (SIT) picked him up and tortured him in various ways keeping him in illegal confinement at a circuit house in Godhra.

"Somehow, I managed to escape from the circuit house and came here," Mulla said.
He claimed that a day before he was picked up by SIT, he had even faxed a handwritten letter addressing the Additional Sessions Judge at Sabarmati Central Jail telling the truth and also intimated him that he would appear in his court to depose in connection with the case on February 16. "I don't know how the letter faxed by me to the court reached in the hands of SIT," Mulla, who filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking relief here yesterday, claimed.