Dahod (Gujarat): A local court today (May 20, 2004) rejected the bail applications of all the 20 persons, including six policemen, arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for their alleged roles in the Bilkis Banu alleged gang rape-cum-murder case of the post-Godhra riots, in which 14 people were killed on March 3, 2002.

District and sessions court judge V B Mayani rejected the bail plea of all the 20 and ordered them to be kept in judicial custody.

The CBI counsel Abdul Rashid Sheikh had during the bail plea hearing stressed on the alleged conspiracy hatched by the police officials in order to defend the accused persons in which the preliminary investigation was carried out so slow that the bodies of seven victims had almost decomposed by the time officials reached the scene of crime on March 4, 2002.

Sheikh also argued that the policemen had conducted slack investigation and also erred by recording false dates of recording inquest 'panchnama' and that the woman panch mentioned on record was completely fictitious.

He contented that the bodies of Bilkis' relatives who were killed by the mob was also moved from the incident spot either by the accused police officials themselves or by someone else at their behest.