Godhra: Cops free accused, jail 14-yr-old namesake

Godhra (Gujarat): The role of the police is being questioned in the six-year-old Godhra massacre case. On Wednesday, CNN-IBN showed you how innocent men have been labeled terrorists.
CNN-IBN's Special Investigation has now learnt about how a key confession was obtained after sustained torture and tutoring by the Gujarat Police. Not only that, as reward, the police set the witness free and in his place a minor with the same name has been in jail for over four years.
An accused in the Godhra case, Anwar Kalandar says, "15 din ko roz maarte the. Raat ko aur subah mein woh story sunate the. Noel Parmar, woh Bhatt tha, koi karke tha ek officer. Sab alag-alag karke aate they roz raat ko. ("They beat us up every day for almost 15 days. The whole day they would tell us what we had to say. There was a man called Noel Parmar and another called Bhatt. All the officers came to us separately.)
Anwar Kalandar was tortured and forced to give a confessional statement that he had stopped the Sabarmati Express by turning the alarm discs of the S-9 compartment.
Kalandar says, "Mere ko yeh bataya ki tu yeh number pe chada, nau number pe, aur Ilyas mere peeche wale dabbe me chadha. Hum log do chade yahan pe aur dono ne bahar se woh jo chabi aati hai na, woh ghumaya. Fir ek din usko aisa laga, Bhatt ko, ki bhai story usko poori barabar aa gayi hai, fir woh mere ko wahan leker gaya, Dhakor, aur phir wahan Magistrate ke saamne bayan likhwaya." ("They told me that I have to say that I got on in number 9 and Ilyas in the compartment behind me. Then both of us turned the key that was outside. Then after some days, Bhatt felt that I knew the story well enough and then he took me to Dhakor and made me confess to the Magistrate there.")
Anwar's confession was extracted by a policeman, Noel Parmar. He has since then retracted his confession.
But here's the twist — Kalandar was never granted bail. He was simply set free and in his place, a 14-year-old was put in jail four years ago, just because his name was also Anwar Kalandar.
The minor Anwar Kalandar's father, Abdul Sattar Kalandar, says, "Anwar Abdul Sattar Kalandar. Anwar naam hai. Doosre ka naam bhi Anwar tha sir." ("Anwar Abdul Sattar Kalandar. His name is Anwar and the other man's name was also Anwar.")
Adds the minor's brother, Farooq Kalandar, "Affidavit doosra Kalandar ne karaya na, to mere bhai ko pakad kar le gaye police." ("The other Kalandar had got an affidavit done, but they caught my brother and took him to jail.")
As justice has been, both delayed and denied in Godhra, the wounds are refusing to heal.