The women's story is tragic. "Eight years ago, they raped my daughter in front of my eyes and burnt her alive. Today, I see her assaulters walking free on the road while going to work or to buying things. They look at me with smugness in their eyes and I have no other option but to avert my gaze," recalled 31-year-old Farzana at a press meet in New Delhi on Tuesday.
She is one among the 97 women witnesses to the Gujarat carnage of 2002. It is a norm for these women to live and relive their terror and to be often ridiculed by the state's system, they say. They are not safe from the accused they testified against, not from the presiding officers in the case nor from the policemen patrolling their area.
In 2009, the Supreme Court fast-tracked eight major Gujarat riot cases even while refusing to transfer them out of Gujarat like with the Best Bakery case. Trial in the critical cases -- Naroda Patiya (110 killed), Gulberg society (70 killed), Naroda Gaam (12 killed), Odh (12 killed), and Sardarpura (33 killed) -- has been underway in Gujarat. The women witnesses at Tuesday's press meet were from these cases.
Testifying in court, the women have stood their ground aided by a few organisations, even though, they say, it is getting increasingly difficult.
"On that night, they killed eight of my family members while making us witness the massacre. They snatched my three-month-old nephew from her mother's hands and threw her into the fire. I managed to escape somehow and am living to tell the tale of terror. I will testify to what I saw that night, even though the very perpetrators roam around free enough to threaten me. The presiding officers listening to my statement ridicules me and the state-appointed lawyers say I am lying. I don't think we will get justice unless the case is tried outside Gujarat," another victim, Shakeela Ben, said.
The victims were speaking at the release of the Survivors Citizens for Justice and Peace Report 2010 in New Delhi on Tuesday. The report was read at the United Nations in New York on July 22 this year. It is a comprehensive report prepared by Citizens for Justice and Peace, an NGO, to appeal to the international community to intervene.
Rupa Ben Modi, who lost her son Azhar in the attack on the Gulberg Society in which 39 people were burnt alive and which inspired the movie Parzania, said, "The state-appointed lawyers keep a constant watch on me and deliver summons to me even while I am travelling outside Gujarat. This is illegal. Disbelieving officers, threatening accused persons and hostile state appointed lawyers are all contributing to making this case impossible."
Speaking at the report's release, Member of Parliament Brinda Karat said, "We are in the midst of an unfolding saga. The Gujarat state home minister being exposed in such a manner is a striking example of how the state's power is being used against victims. In a place like Gujarat, what is the use of the recent CrPC amendment if it is being denied to the victims?"
The women witnesses of these trials are being forced into habitats of exclusion because of their firm decision to bring the culprits to the book. These women, most of who are casual labourers in Naroda Patiya and other places in Gujarat, are reportedly threatened by their assaulters. The people in power during the carnage are still around, and these witnesses have no other option but to face the threats, sometimes subtle, sometimes obvious.
"I witnessed my friend Kauserbano being subjected to the most unimaginable brutality. When I recalled what happened in the court, the state appointed lawyers and the presiding officef refused to believe me," Jannat Bi said.
Four other witnesses have backed the testimony to this brutal act, even as "highly paid counsel" for the state of New Delhi and Gujarat claimed that no such incident took place.
Jannat Bi says her state-appointed lawyer tried to dissuade her from saying what she was planning to depose. She claimed that the judge, after listening to her testimony, said that everything she said was false.
"This case has to be tried outside Gujarat because the state has too much power. Justice will not be delivered unless the case is taken outside Gujarat," Farzana chipped in.
Aruna Roy, member of the National Advisory Council, said, "When I went to Gujarat just after the carnage in 2002, it took about six months for me to get back my equilibrium. And I had not lost any family member. Imagine these women, then. They have lost multiple family members, most of them slaughtered right in front of their eyes. These women deserve justice. And for this to happen, our entire legal system has to be reviewed."
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