A Witness Is Rejected, Dejected

A probable reason for the Godhra altercation, Nanavati rejected Sophia Bano’s attempted abduction testimony. AJIT SAHI meets her in Vadodara

IT HAD all started with her, or so Justice Nanavati doesn’t believe. Sophia Bano SB Dhantia was to travel home to Vadodara on February 27, 2002 after Eid holidays when a coach of the Sabarmati Express was set afire, killing 59 occupants just outside Godhra’s railway station, 80 km from here. Sophia, then 19 and unmarried, her mother, Jaitunbibi, and a younger sister had, an hour earlier, reached Godhra station to board a train for Vadodara, where her father is a railway employee. Shortly, the Sabarmati Express, delayed by some five hours, arrived at the platform. “The station teemed with aggressive karsevaks and everyone was totally scared,” Sophia told TEHELKA on September 29 during a visit to her father’s home here for Eid, speaking slowly, still edgy, recalling events that have rocked the nation and her life for six-and-a-half years. “They beat up some tea stall boys, and an old, bearded Muslim. Then, someone lunged at me from behind and clasped my mouth with his hand. I struggled and screamed for my mother; he then left me.” In testimony the nation has heard repeatedly, the three women ran and hid in the booking clerk’s office. They then hurried back to Jaitunbibi’s sister’s house nearby. Soon, they heard of the train fire. Some days later, they shifted to a refugee camp. In about two weeks, they returned home to Vadodara.

Justice Nanavati’s September 25 report on the Godhra train fire, however, calls Sophia a liar. Without citing any evidence, he concludes that Sophia — who deposed before him in January 2003 and was extensively cross-examined — concocted the story at the instance of a key “conspirator” of the Godhra train fire, one Salim Panwala. Nanavati says Panwala spread a rumour of karsevaks trying to abduct a Muslim girl to inflame the Muslims in the nearby ghetto of Signal Falia, who turned out in large numbers and stoned and burnt the train coach. Opines Nanavati: “It is difficult to believe that a Ram sevak had attempted to abduct a Muslim girl… in the presence of so many persons.” He doubts the three women were at the station that morning at all, saying that if they were “really” there they would have boarded the Sabarmati Express, which would have got them to Vadodara quicker. The judge ignores the fact that the women could not have known that the Sabarmati Express was delayed by five hours. And just why would three Muslim women board a train full of belligerent, karsevaks? Nanavati says no Muslim vendor has come forward to support Sophia’s story. However, says crusading lawyer Mukul Sinha, who appeared against the state government at the Commission, “Nanavati refused to summon any of the Muslim witnesses cited in the case.” Nanavati says once the women were inside the booking clerk’s office, “they had no reason to be afraid of anything” and should have waited for their train. “It appears to be an attempt to pass off the false rumour as true.” When contacted by TEHELKA, Nanavati said, “There is no question of me talking to TEHELKA.”

Sophia’s mother, Jaitunbibi, who has virtually turned schizophrenic since the incident and suffers from crying fits, is angry at Nanavati’s allegation. “This is not false rumour but fact,” she says, anguished. “You really think we would concoct such stories about our young, unmarried daughter?” Says Sinha, “Nanavati rejected Sophia’s testimony because he wanted to show that there was a conspiracy and that the fire was not provoked by her attempted abduction.”

On July 27, 2008, a few hours after serial blasts scarred Ahmedabad, Sophia repeated her testimony before the Special Investigating Team that the Supreme Court set up this year to inquire independently into the Godhra train fire. On August 22, Jaitunbibi did the same. The lowincome family is visibly nervous but determined to ensure that the truth comes out. “I tell my mother and sister to keep their courage,” says Sophia’s younger sister. “Truth will prevail.”