During the trial, several eyewitnesses told the court that there was a fight between karsevaks and Muslim tea vendors on the platform. Veer Chedi Pal, a survivor of the coach S- 6 inferno, told the court: ‘A few karsevaks beat up a Muslim vendor who had entered the coach to sell tea. Then they threw him out of the compartment.’
Second Provocation: Karsevaks Try to Abduct a Muslim Girl from the Platform
There was more than a tea-stall wrangle on the platform. Some karsevaks had allegedly tried to abduct a Muslim girl. Sophia Bano Shaikh, around 18, accompanied by mother and sister, was visiting relatives in Godhra and had come to the station to board a train for her hometown Vadodara.
Sophia testified before the court that she and her family were standing on platform No. 1 when the Sabarmati pulled in. Some men with saffron strips on their head got off for tea and snacks. They were shouting Jai Shri Ram. Some of them were beating a Muslim man with a stick and shouting “Kill Musalmans”. Frightened, Sophia and her family started moving away when one of the men grabbed her from behind, clamped her mouth and tried dragging her away. Her mother shouted loudly for help; the man let go. Sophia says she and her family stood in the booking clerk’s office for a while then gave up the idea of going to Vadodara, took a rickshaw and went back to her aunt’s house. According to Sophia, the karsevaks also tried to abduct another burqa-clad woman on the platform. However, the police have failed to identify the woman or record her statement till date.
Though the police recorded Sophia and her family’s statement on 28 March 2002 — a month after the Godhra incident — they neither mentioned the episode in the official narration of events nor included Sophia’s statement in the first chargesheet filed on 22 May 2002. These statements were only made part of the first supplementary chargesheet filed six months later.
It was this aborted abduction of Sophia that aggravated the situation. A rumour went through the station that karsevaks had abducted many Muslim girls. A mob gathered. Though Sophia had taken refuge in the booking clerk’s office, the rumour spread that the karsevaks had successfully abducted her and other girls in coach S-6. During the trial, Purshotbhai Govardhanbhai Patel, a coach S-6 karsevak, told the court that the mob had been shouting slogans for the women to be released from the coach.
Hey you are right, they did not kidnap, but they just tried!