Then the rumours began. Imagination took over and for scared, terrorised minds, nothing was beyond belief. A man in a police uniform was driving around in a Tata Sumo, gunning down people. A pujari had been beheaded. In the Himmat Nagar Camp, mobs had burnt houses of Hindus and murdered them. Women had been raped. The rapists had written ‘Laden’ on their chests with a knife-point. Some had cut off their breasts. Every hour there was a new rumour and one person diligently passed it on to five others.

When a new day dawned, the taps were dry. In Dabhadi, there were breaches in the pipeline. The milkmen came on their rat-a-tat motorbikes from the neighbouring villages. They went back with rumours and unsold milk (because there were rumours the milk had been poisoned).

With the curfew clamped through the weekend, the rumours about the women boarded the red-and-custard state transport bus and disembarked at every village and town around Malegaon. The rumours crossed the district border to neighbouring Dhule and Jalgaon.

Malegaon’s neighbours are predominantly Hindu. The same rumours did the rounds over and over again and that was confirmation enough for them, they say in retrospect. And on Sunday, as the Army trucks rolled into Malegaon from Deolali, the places around started burning.
It was time for Malegaon’s revenge. Mungse, Dabhadi, Ravalgaon the candy factory village, Vadel Khakurdi. A shop burnt here, a vehicle burnt there and the handful of Muslim families cowered in their houses as they heard the mobs going about their job.

On Monday, somebody stabbed a 65-year-old fakir to death in Galane. A masjid was damaged in Antapur. Godowns and vehicles went up in flames in the towns of Kalwan, Deola, Satane and some in Dhule. In Kalwan, 17 shops, two trucks, a tractor, a motorcycle and two cars were burnt. A truck loaded with onions was roasted. And in a bizarre case, in the dead of night, 250 hens in a poultry farm were beaten senseless with lathis.

On Tuesday, it was the turn of Dhyane, Daregaon, Satana, Nampur and Khadki. A stone-flinging mob was even active on Azad Chowk in Nashik. The following day, mobs of around 500 pelted stones on Sakri and tried to burn down houses in Madgaon. On Thursday, the forked tongue of the riot licked Vakhari Pimpalgaon, Mulher, Sau-dane and Parola. In Parola, 35 km from Dhule town, men in snow-white dhoti, kurta and topis wait for the ST bus. They are proud that their village has figured in the newspapers. There are many guides now to escort one to the places of arson.

A week after the riot erupted, as the rumours were nailed as lies, the fires subsided. Back in Malegaon, as jumma dawned again, tense securitymen patrolled the streets. Curfew was relaxed, the town tried to heal itself as people went about registering their panchanamas. But as twilight falls on an incident-free day, Malegaon is painted in different colours 60 km away in Dhule. People discuss how there has been a fresh eruption of riots; at a cyber cafe, two students compare the numbers of victims.

These rumours, too, shall pass.