Cop who poured salt on bodies is arrested

The CBI has been ordered by the Supreme Court to probe the Bilkis case which was first highlighted by The Indian Express. Raped when she was five months pregnant in March 2002, she watched 14 of her family members being killed in a Dahod village.

According to CBI sources, it was Saiyeed who supervised the inquest and other legal proceedings when several bodies — Gujarat police claimed there were only seven, the CBI has so far dug up remains of four—were found in the fields near Paniwela during the riots.

The CBI team found that inquest reports accounted for seven bodies and there was no record of the burial of the bodies. But a police photographer questioned last month gave CBI photographs which showed an eighth body. The photographer said he had counted eight bodies though the police mentioned only seven in the inquest report. The CBI team also found that the bodies had not been buried in accordance with Islamic rites: three of the four skeletons recovered had been stacked atop each other and another was lying alongside.

When he was questioned by the CBI after the rejection of his anticipatory bail, Saiyeed said he had sent for 90 kg of salt and had it sprinkled on the bodies before their burial. All this, say officers, goes against his earlier statement that he had buried the bodies according to religious rites and legal provisions. ‘‘Investigations will reveal whether there was any deliberate motive on part of the accused to conceal facts and why he didn’t follow the set procedure,’’ an officer said.