Mumbai,January 24:A Muslim family whose two members were killed the day after Hindu radical Sunil Joshi was murdered is living in fear because three right-wing activists named in the dying declaration of Jaleel Shah, who was burnt alive, are moving scot-free.
In police records, the trio is missing though they move openly in neighbouring Agrod, from where they hail, and nearby villages.
Joshi, the alleged mastermind of Malegaon and Mecca Masjid blasts, was shot dead late on December 29, 2007, in Dewas town, 30 km from this village.
The next morning, motorcycle-borne right-wing activists from Agrod and Vijayaganj Mandi villages killed Rasheed Shah, 65, and doused his 27-year-old son Jaleel with an inflammable substance and set him afire. Jaleel succumbed to his burns two weeks later in Indore’s MY Hospital.
In his dying declaration, Jaleel had named Ajab Singh, Narayan Singh alias Shivnarayan Singh and Anandilal alias Avanti Das as accused.
Jaleel’s brother Rahish, who survived a bullet injury, also named the trio in his deposition before the Dewas Sessions Court on November 19, 2008.
The trio was named in addition to five activists, who were sentenced to life imprisonment on July 31, 2009. In the RSS hierarchy, the trio, who wield considerable clout in and around the village, rank above the other five accused.
“They often come to our village. We are scared we might be harmed,” Jaleel’s brother Latif Shah told The Indian Express. During the 18-month-long trial the family had received threats, and police protection was provided to them.
Latif, who survived because he was away on the day of the attack, has submitted applications to the MP Police, including the DGP, and the local SP, wanting to know the status of the probe against the trio.
Advocate Siddharth Mahurkar, who had assisted the prosecution during the main trial, said the Shah family had given complete names and addresses of the trio but the local police continued to protect them because they were more powerful than those convicted.
Mahurkar alleged that the attack on the Shah family on December 30, 2007, could be part of a conspiracy to divert police attention and to give a safe passage to the real accused involved in Joshi’s murder. “How come the most violent retaliation took place 30 km away?” he asked.
The chargesheet filed by the police on March 31, 2008, named only the five accused, saying investigations against the trio would go on and a separate chargesheet would be filed later.
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