Doctor’s testimony challenged in Naroda-Patiya carnage case

GANDHINAGAR - A witness of the Naroda-Patiya carnage of 2002 has challenged the testimony of the doctor who had said that reports of the womb of one of the victims, Kauser Bano, being slit open by the rioters was not true.

The doctor who conducted the post mortem on the bodies of the victims had said the foetus was intact in the womb of Kauser Bano and the cause of her death was due to burns.

The witness, Dildar Sayyed, Tuesday filed an application in the special court of Jyotsnaben Yagnik, hearing the Naroda-Patiya carnage case, demanding a fresh investigation.

He pointed out that at the time of post-mortem of the bodies after the carnage on Feb 28, 2002, most of the bodies including that of Kausar Bano’s had remained unidentified.

It was only in August 2004, that the then additional commissioner of police (crime branch) had identified it. In such a background, the witness said, how could Jayant Kanoria, who had conducted the post-mortem, have known it was Kauser Bano.

Also it is a mystery how a body which had remained unidentified for so long was recognized by the additional commissioner of police as that of the pregnant woman in question two and half years after the carnage.

A couple of witnesses in the case had earlier claimed to have seen some of the rioters slit open Kausar Bano’s womb with a sword and later fling both the foetus and her body in the fire.

During his deposition before the court earlier this month, Kanoria had contradicted the claim and maintained that when he conducted the post-mortem, he had found the foetus “in tact” in Kausar Bano’s womb. The witness pointed out that even the accused, Babu Bajrangi, had reportedly admitted during the Tehelka sting operation of having slit open a pregnant woman’s womb.

In his application, the witness demanded a detailed fresh investigation.