Wednesday, March 16 2005 10:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: A key witness of the Godhra train carnage case yesterday (Mar 15, 2005) filed an affidavit before the Godhra commission seeking protection and alleging that a senior police official connected with the case had "threatened" him to maintain before the commission during his cross examination what he had said to police about the train carnage incident, commission sources said yesterday.

The affidavit was filed by the key witness Anwar Abdul Sattar Kalandar before a single member of the Godhra inquiry commission Justice (Retd) K G Shah after his application containing the same was dismissed by Shah on Monday (Mar 14, 2005).

"The commission has admitted Kalandar's affidavit today but dismissed his application where he sought protection. The application was dismissed on the basis that there was no proof that he was threatened by the senior police official Noel Parmar who is also the investigating officer of the train carnage case," the commission sources said yesterday.

The commission however told advocate Mukul Sinha who filed the application on Kalandar's behalf on Monday that he could file a detailed affidavit if he has any allegations to make in this regard.

In the affidavit, Kalandar, who the Special Investigating Team (SIT) say is an eye witness to the entire sequence of events, said that he was followed by policemen in plain clothes near Kosamba town in Surat distrcit on March 13 and was forced to make a phone call to Noel Parmar who threatened him with dire consequences if he alter his statements before the commission when he was cross-examined.

Kalandar is yet to be summoned by the commission.