Witness was held in connection with bomb blast cases.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: Bringing shame to the Mumbai crime branch, a prosecution witness taken into custody by the police for his alleged involvement in three bombing incidents told a special court that he was forced to drink urine of a co-witness and indulge in unnatural sex with a stray dog.
The incident happened 12 years ago when he was taken into custody by the police. The statement of the witness reads, “I was made to drink gutter water and urine… It is correct that I was asked to drink urine of another accused and my urine (was given) to him.”
He further said to the judge that the police officials forced him to have sex with a stray dog and was repeatedly beaten up while he was in the custody starting from April 24, 2003 till he was released on May 17, 2003.
The witness was taken into custody in cases connected to the bombing of Mumbai Central station on December 6, 2002; Vile Parle bombing of January 27, 2003 and the Mulund train blast on March, 2003. During the interrogation process, the witness had revealed the identity of a SIMI activist named Saquib Nachan in carrying out the explosions.
The shocking story of custodial torture came to light when the defence lawyer asked the witness about the torture that he had to undergo while in the police custody, to which he said, “I cannot tell those dirty things which they asked me to do in the crime branch office as women advocates are present (here) in the court.”
After the turn of events, the public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, declared the witness hostile. The prosecution witness also upheld the claims of another witness who had earlier in 2004 had said that he was put under immense torture. In the meanwhile, the accused in the case whose identity was revealed by the witness had also claimed that three Mumbai crime branch officers had used third degree torture but, this allegation was denied by the Crime Branch during the hearing in 2003.