An Indian man charged over the train torching that triggered Gujarat's Hindu-Muslim bloodshed two years ago has asked for bail so he can go home to have sex with his wife, court officials said on Tuesday.
| "I mean, like, it's all swollen, y'know?" |
Firozkhan Zafarkhan's two-page handwritten application to the court in the state's main city, Ahmedabad, says he and his wife are suffering mental trauma because their physical needs have not been met for such a long time. He wants to be allowed out of jail for 30 days. Zafarkhan, a Muslim, said his religion and India's conservative culture forbid him from having sex with anyone but his wife. He is charged under a tough anti-terrorism law with being part of a mob that torched a train in the Gujarat city of Godhra in February 2001, burning alive 59 Hindu pilgrims, including many women and children. That incident triggered days of communal violence, India's worst in a decade, in which human rights groups say more than 2,000 people, mainly Muslims, were burned and hacked to death. The anti-terrorism law makes bail almost impossible, but astonished prosecutors have not yet decided what to do. "It's an unprecedented bail application," said one, Sudhir Brahmbhatt." We have not decided whether to oppose this or not."
It's never come up before. They're not sure how to handle it. |