"He threatened me saying we'll beat you people blue and black till you leave the village," recalled 45-year-old Imtiaz Ghanchi.
On 20 September, Ghanchi, a key witness in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India UU Lalit alleging that one of the key convicts had 'threatened to kill him'.
The 11 men convicted of gang-raping Bilkis Bano and killing 14 members of her family – including her three-year-old daughter – during the Gujarat riots of 2002 were released from a sub-jail in Godhra on 16 August after a state government panel approved their application for remission of sentence.
Speaking to The Quint, Ghanchi said that he was apprehensive that this would happen since the day of the release of the convicts. So, on 15 September when he was travelling from Singvad village to his residence in Devgadh Baria, convict Radheshyam Shah spotted him at the Piplod railway barricade, he was scared but not surprised.
"I was on a bike, waiting for the train to pass when Radheshyam Shah spotted me and signalled me to walk up to him," Ghanchi said. "I was scared to go near him but I went anyway. He then threatened me saying ab to hum bahaar aa gaye hain. Tum logon ko maar maar ke gaanv se nikaalenge (Now we're free. We'll beat you people blue and black till you leave the village)," he added.