Within days of an inconvenient Sreekumar being shifted out from the sensitive post of ADGP Intelligence, and the post handed over to a more malleable ADGP (Intelligence), Gujarat, a series of ‘encounters’ read extra judicial killings are were unleashed in Gujarat, between October 2002 and January 2007.

Read Part One of this Insight here

22 illegal killings in all, 16 that take Muslim lives, six Hindu. All these killings are followed by a post facto explanation from Gujarat’s intelligence bureau (often backed by the Centre) that the men and women shot in cold blood were all part of a plot to kill the chief minister or the then BJP president. Senior sources withing the Gujarat police confirmed that no prior information or intimation is recorded of intelligence about, ot the movements of such individuals who present such a high security threat. Neither is there any official documentation of any security nor protocol measures were taken by the Gujarat police to protect the lives of the powerful under threat by these men, or women, it is reliably learned.

Does Pandya’s murder fall within the parameter of a political killing masterminded by forces irked by his stances or was it an act of vendetta by Muslim militants for the 2002 carnage? Could the masterminds behind the former have used the ire instigated in the latter by the 2002 killings, to sustain and satisfy a different kind of revenge?

Means, motive and the mastermind
In any whodunit investigation into Pandya’s assassination, even without the colourful parameters provided by the master detective Hercule Poirot, political vendetta would surely be listed as one of the likely motives. Pandya had to pay a heavy political price… before he paid with his life. Forced to resign from the cabinet of ministers, post the carnage in 2002, he was also denied a ticket in the December 2002 elections from Ellis Bridge his well-groomed assembly constituency. Furious and rebellious as he was vocal in the media, some national level BJP leaders even ‘dared’ to speak out at the injustice meted out to him.
Days before five bullets had been pumped into him at point blank range minutes after he left for his daily morning walk to Law Gardens, the Bharatiya Janata Party had announced his political rehabilitation at the centre. Pandya was to be inducted into the party’s national executive on April 4, 2003. Back to centre-stage, his move to the capital would bring him into the close proximity of the most powerful men and women in the nation’s capital, within and outside his party where he would spit out, albeit in loud whispers, his bitter tale. Modi and his moves on, before and after Feburary 27, 2002 would be known first hand, from one who had seen the man operate at dangerously close quarters.

It was not to be. Eight days before the date, Pandya met his end and lay in cold blood, unattended for several hours while his faithful secretary and family waited in vain for his return from his morning walk. The raw and uncontrollable grief of Pandya’s family, his father Vithalbhai, sisters Chayabehn and wife Jagrutibehn was directed at Modi. His sister threatened to gouge his eyes out.The anger of his fans later that day at the hospital and at the condolence meeting a few days later was palpable, close to a political rebellion. Most of this anger was directed at Modi. Advani stepped in swiftly to dilute and diffuse both.
 
Did Advani, CBI and media divert attention or play things down?
So many aspects of the mysterious killing raise more questions than the CBI —brought in within two-three days of Pandya’s death to investigate the killing — has bothered to answer. Advani’s first dilatory move was to bring in the CBI in charge by March 29, 2003, and stem the public anger, forcing Modi to abide by the decision. The move was clever and it helped cooled tempers down. By September 2003 when the CBI concluded its investigation and filed its chargesheet, the agency’s conclusion confirmed the prognosis of the crime as pronounced by Advani the day he handed over charge to the CBI. A terrorist underworld nexus was behind the assassination Advani said, CBI charged and the trial court decreed. Between 2002 and a few years thereafter, the story was over, game set and match. Pandya’s life that ended dramatically had been reduced to the margin by his old friend but ruthless rival Narendra Modi. Even the drama of his death despite all the questions has shaken the composure of the man who could still be the ruthless mastermind behind the act.

Was Advani influencing CBI before it could even begin its work? As deputy prime minister and union home minister he is known to have thrown his weight behind supremacist groups allied to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) before.

Following the triple murder by burning of Graham Staines and his young sons, Advani was quick to absolve the VHP and Bajrang Dal of any involvement in the crime (The Times of India had reported his comment). Or did the CBI, the day it was given charge of the investigation already have information on who the killers were?

Was the subsequent conclusion reached by the CBI an independent and rigorous professional assessment? Or did the bureau, as it has done often in the past bow to the will of political masters affecting its credibility as the country’s premier investigating agency??

There are several questions that the CBI does not even begin to answer, many empirical and forensic lapses that will go down as a black mark in any objective history of the agency. One that is most significant lapse is CBI’s staunch refusal, despite the anger and conviction of Pandya’s closest family to even examine the plausibility or possibility of political vendetta being the mens rea, or motive behind the gruesome crime. The CBI, the country’s premier investigating agency concluded in its chargesheet that it was a terrorist underworld nexus that was responsible for Pandya’s death.

Though the local media reported lapses in the CBI investigation with declining consistently from the day of the murder in 2003 to the conviction of the “terrorist accused” in 2007, national editions of neither The Times of India nor the Indian Express tenaciously carried the tale outside Gujarat. The scandal remained confined to the western Indian state alone. Just like the coverage of the eight critical trials currently afoot (2009-2010) in Ahmedabad, Mehsana and Anand districts of the state, the national print and television media colluded to confining the coverage of serious lapses in investigations by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) then headed by another former CBI director Dr RK Raghavan, and the bias and prejudice of the local courts by confining coverage to their local editions.

Media’s own participatory role in fracturing its impact, region by region has not only confined critical news coverage to local editions. It has helped perpetrators of crimes, often the state or agents of the state by damage controlling or limiting national outrage and public perceptions building up against injustices. In the case of the media coverage of the Gujarat genocide justice process, media coverage has been fleeting and inconsistent. Television has no patience for diligent process, or the raw and rigorous courage of survivors, the grit and itch to the system caused by activists and rights groups. It prefers the screams of the genocide itself, the blood and the gore, the impotent tears before they are converted into an empowered struggle. The helplessness of disconnected sensation and images are preferable to a mourning and unified movement for resistance, justice and peace.

The CBI’s investigation had glaring loopholes. The carefully chosen trial court judge, Sonia Gokhani coming from a family committed to strong political views, did not even begin to exercise her powers under the criminal procedure code to force further investigation where several were necessary. The man who oversaw this historically poor investigation through was the then CBI director PC Sharma. PC Sharma took personal interest in the case, even visiting Ahmedabad on April 3, 2002 smilingly offering himself to news photographers and interviews. He appears to have been well rewarded for his efforts overseeing the Haren Pandya murder investigation by the ruling NDA’s home minister and deputy prime minister, LK Advani and promptly appointed to the National Human Rights Commission on March 3, 2004, soon after his retirement. The country’s largest civil liberties organisation, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) challenged his appointment in the Supreme Court of India, on grounds that a policeman serving on a statutory human rights body defeated the very purpose of the NHRC’s creation. The court dismissed the petition stating that nothing in the law constituting the NHRC (the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1991) precluded such an appointment. The court stuck to the technicalities of the law and refused to honour its premier commitment to the fundamental rights guaranteed in our Constitution and its mandate to intervene whenever these may be seen to be violated. Further, the failure of our apex court to see the nexus behind such critical appointments have allowed not just this appointment, but so many other similar and significant abuses of power by governments and those elected. When perpetrators of unprofessional acts are rewarded, not only is the soul and spirit of our Constitution violated. The message the system sends out to those who violate the law and Constitution is that these actions will not only go unchecked. You may even be rewarded. PC Sharma remains a member of the NHRC to this day.

Tragically two equally potent and possible theories could fit the motive for this gruesome murder. Pandya’s calculated action in speaking to a citizens tribunal, albeit one headed by former members of the Indian judiciary exposed state complicity in the genocide and surely could have been one of the motives behind the murder. The CBI dismissed this possibility as non-existent, refusing to even consider it as a potent motive. By  leaving this motive conspicuously un-investigated, by refusing to record the evidence of close family members, by refusing to call as witnesses the first among three to reach the spot –including Nilesh Bhatt, Pandya’s private secretary—where Pandya’s body lay in white Maruti car, the CBI investigation has laid itself open for contempt and scrutiny.

CBI investigation a blot on the institution’s legacy?
By latching onto the theory, first propounded by political masters but not at all improbable in its own right and further compounding its unprofessionalism by botching up key empirical investigations, the CBI’s investigation into the Haren Pandya murder remains a major slur on the agency’s reputation.
After February 27, 2002, the date of the Godhra incident, on May 22 2002, there occurred a series of tiffin bomb blasts in local buses all over the state of Gujarat. These incidents were booked as offences under five different police station areas. The state’s police did not opine publicly as to who had done it. Thereafter the attack on the Akshardham temple on September 25, 2002 took place after which there was a so-called attack on the VHP leader, Jaideep Patel. On March 26, 2003, Haren Pandya was killed and four days after CBI is handed charge, the accused were arrested on April 4, 2003. The claim is that they were arrested from Parimal Garden in Ahmedabad. The CBI states that weapons have been found on them and also that they had returned to Gujarat as part of a conspiracy to kill Hindu leaders (including Narendra Modi) after being trained in Pakistan. The crime branch and CBI traces the nexus to Hyderabad. The CBI seizes files form the local crime branch within 3 days. It takes over all records related to the murder.

This means that for nearly one year (after the tiffin blasts in May 2003) the investigating agencies had no notion or clue of this wider conspiracy by the accused and only after Pandya’s murder does this theory of an overall conspiracy crop up. The distraught Pandya family wails out in anguish alleging political motives but as far as we know no investigations on these lines are ever made.

This also means that from May 2002 until March 2003, neither the crime branch nor the state had followed any theory of a largescale Muslim conspiracy. Did they have no clue until then, as to who planted the tiffin bombs? No photographs of the alleged accused in the bus blasts had been constructed from descriptions of co-passengers or bus drivers of the different buses. No statements of bus drivers or co-passengers had been obtained.

There were three separate trials for these offences. The Haren Pandya’s murder trial was linked to the murder of Jagdish Tiwari, a VHP leader. This joint trial arises out of the killing of Haren Pandya and of the assault on JagdishTewari who survived. There are twelve accused in this assassination case, the mastermind Mufti Sufiyan allegedly a radical cleric from Lal Masjid area in Ahmedabad is absconding. The circumstances of his disappearance are suspicious and also remain un-probed.

The Haren Pandya killing is alleged to have taken place within or outside Law Garden but there is nothing in the investigations or charge-sheet, no description to show the condition in which the body was found.  Neither are there are no reports or investigations in this connection.  Ellis bridge police station officials reach the spot after the Navrangpura police station officials reach, though the Ellis Bridge is the relevant police station area and roster details reveal that there were enough policemen deployed around for a more prompt intervention. Incidentally the evidence of the policemen recorded by the trial court reveals no consistency on the spot of the crime, whether the murder was committed at Parimal Gardens or Law Gardens. There is much dithering over the location and who should have reached the spot first. The first time that the police reach there after the incident is around 10.40 a.m. though the incident is alleged to have taken place approximately between 7 and 8 am.

Procedural lapses in handling the body
Fifteen minutes after reaching the spot, around 10.55 am the police takes the slain body of Haren Pandya to the VS hospital about 2.5 kms away. Curiously, the hospital does not declare Pandya dead nor do they record his body temperature (This is a normal procedure followed that helps corroborate both whether a person is alive and if not, helps ascertain the time of death). But they do record that his vital symptoms not responding. When they send the body for the post mortem there is no reference to his wearing shoes.

The CBI appears to have overlooked the fact that we are dealing with the murder of a former state home minister. For inexplicable reasons, two police stations had been called to assist. Only one reaches and when the other is about to reach, (Ellis Bridge) the policemen are directed in the wrong direction, they are told to go to Parimal gardens, then re-directed to Law gardens.

All through the trial no one from the prosecution has explained—nor called upon by the court to explain– the mystery of Parimal gardens figuring in the initial instructions to the police when they were called upon to reach the spot of the crime.

Mysteriously, also, the police do not summon an ambulance though the VS hospital is not too far away. The police load Pandya’s body in their own jeep and take him to the hospital where the hospital authorities also record that they cannot feel a heartbeat, but still choose not to record his body temperature. At 12 noon, Haren Pandya is declared dead and we still have no explanation where his shoes are (though he was said to have been taking a morning walk when he was shot dead). In the post mortem report conducted on Haren Pandya’s body, the column meant to specify “estimated time of death” has not been filled.

Bullets that change colour and trajectory?
The post mortem shows five bullets in the body and the forensic experts at the hospital have described them as white metal bullets. Later the same experts describe the bullets seized as grayish (lead). The bullets displayed by the prosecution during the trial appear not to have been the bullets found from Pandya’s body. The judge overlooked another serious lapse.

The prosecution claim that Pandya was found dead slouched in his car is not supported by the angle of the bullet wounds nor by the absence of blood and gunshot residue inside the car. The investigation has failed to explain the absence of any intermediary targets that shots fired inside a car would necessarily pierce and produce.

On March 28, 2003 itself the CBI had taken over the investigations and also seized the cell phone belonging to Haren Pandya. The mobile forensic team meanwhile had gone to examine the site of the killing on the day of the murder. In their report, they do not describe condition or position of the car or its windows but a photo is taken. They make no mention of any gunshot residue in the car though they mention that some colouring that could be blood coating was  found on the neighbouring seat. There are twelve accused and after the initial spot visits the prosecution has made no further investigations at the scene of the crime.

Site of Murder
Medical evidence provided by both a prosecution witness and a defence witness rules out the possibility of the killing of Haren Pandya inside the car.  The spot where the body was found appears not to have been the scene of the crime. The photograph of the car that is documentary evidence supplied by the prosecution leads to this conclusion.

Experts during the trial opined that there were serious questions over the positioning of the body as well: the assailant and the weapon can never be in a spot to straightaway hit the scrotum inside a closed car. Ballistic evidence, by and large supported by a prosecution witness suggests that the circular injuries reflect a perpendicular entry into the body. The six bullet injuries each one circular are almost impossible through such a small opening of the window of the car. Despite this improbability Dr V Gupta, the IO in this case, from the CBI and a doctor have narrated these ‘facts’ in the charge sheet.

The defence during trial first and then before the Gujarat High Court, pointed out that expert prosecution witnesses have unabashedly said that they failed to investigate the position of the body inside the car at various points – from the time of  assault to removal of the body from the car. The ballistic expert, during evidence has not stated that the man was killed in the car.  Discrepancies are evident from their own reports. Six of the wounds are on the right side of the slain man and in an ‘up to down’ position (that is the bullet has been fired from a height and travelled downwards). One wound is left to right and ‘down to up’.
From the photographic evidence of the car collected by the authorities, a careful calculation as to whether it was possible with a 3.5 inch opening of the window to fire rounds of bullets that would injure the victim in the position and fashion that they did, reveal that this was near impossible. Injuries on Pandya’s body were on the other side. There was no way the prosecution had proved their case that Haren Pandya was killed at the spot where he was found in the car, were the strong arguments of the defence.

Dr. Narayan Reddy, serving head of department Osmania department of forensics, and a nationally recognized forensic expert stated in his testimony that such injuries that Pandya had sustained were not possible unless the victim was standing and assailant was crouching. Or, if the victim was lying flat on a surface with the revolver being pointed down towards him, a position that rules out Pandya being shot through a three and a half inch window gap while inside a car.

Discrepancies in Bullets Produced. Significantly, the post mortem report indicates seven bullet injuries even though only five bullets were recovered. The position of these wounds raised questions about the position of the victim when he was attacked. No explanation has been provided by the prosecution. Out of seven injuries one has followed a track from left to right below, upwards. On the face of it, such an injury is impossible to sustain inside a car, especially if the assailant is seated to the right. Despite instructions from the mobile forensic experts to the contrary, the prosecution withheld documents relating to the site of the offence and even the post-mortem report from their handpicked medical and ballistic experts.There can be only one explanation for this shady and shoddy behaviour by the CBI. The inference is inescapable that if investigated, and if these experts had been supplied documents like the post mortem report and the site documents, the CBI’s own expert witnesses would have arrived at conclusions that would have defeated the prosecution case.

The prosecution had a weak case
Finally, when the matter came to trial, the prosecution case rested only on a bunch of confessional statements made by the accused young men unsupported by any documentary or forensic evidence. All accused have been charged with the same conspiracy. In the course of the recovery from their homes in Ahmedabad, the Crime Branch found nothing. Interestingly according to the prosecution, Asghar is stated to have fled to Hyderabad after his arrest at Parimal gardens and is thereafter supposed to have been arrested on his return. It is after Asghar’s arrest and a search made by the CBI in their homes within Ahmedabad that the revolvers were supposed to have bene found. That is the case for the prosecution.

The defence argued that the prosecution in the Haren Pandya case was guilty of withholding of evidence in several ways: not leading evidence and withholding material evidence in their  possession despite directions of the court (shoes of the slain man, his cell phone records were not brought before the court); not producing vital witnesses (the secretary of Haren Pandya who reached the spot first and his wife who could have stated what time he left home were not called) and defacing or destroying evidence (indicators of several missed calls received on Pandya’s mobile were deleted while the mobile phone was in the custody of the investigating officer (IO) of the CBI, Dr Gupta).

Role of the CBI and the IO
After the CBI took over the investigation, their officers did not even record the statements of Pandya’s personal secretary Nilesh Bhatt and Kuntal Shanghvi who had reached the spot well before the police and the complainant.

They werealso not brought before the court. Their statements recorded by the Ellis Bridge police would and do throw light on the position of the body. However, they have been deliberately kept out of the court because their version would completely demolish the so-called eye-witness account.

There is one description in those statements which, read with the defence medical evidence (the defence brought in Dr Narayana Reddy Head of the Forensic department of Osmania University) as well as the evidence of the doctor who performed the post-mortem, might provide the clue as to the killing but the inference would be then that the deceased had stepped out of the car.  Since the same would defeat the eye-witness and possibly rule out the role of the present accused the prosecution suppressed the cross examination by the defence.

It was CBI’s IO Gupta (a doctor by profession) who categorically asserted that such a firing inside the car could have happened while Pandya was sitting inside the car but he had no explanation for the complete absence of blood marks or injury in the urinary tract.  Through the trial, the prosecution dithered, changing its theories and averments to the extent that the CBI even wanted to alter the position of the window in co-relation to what could be seen or observed from the photograph. The defence argued that the photograph should be sent to a national physical laboratory for corroboration. The Court refused this request.

Confession accepted in toto, due process abused?
What has been most shocking of all has been the dishonesty of the Judge, Sonia Gokhani. She accepted the confessions in toto never mind volumes of case law on the subject. When an officer of an investigating or prosecuting agency (in this case the CBI) lies in court and gets away with it, the dignity of a Court requires that the court orders an investigation.  In all these cases, she openly stated and genuinely believed that the defence was not to be believed and the prosecution is to be believed in toto. Due process was abused in the course of these trials. The judge did not question the prosecution’s failure to summon Pandya’s wife. This presumption of good faith in a prosecutorial agency shows predetermined bias on part of the judge.

Pandya’s father, Vithalbhai Pandya also produced an article from the Asian Age by Sonal Kellog who had stated that she had spoken to three morning walkers who had seen Pandya but had not disclosed their names. Though the defence asked the judge to summon the journalist and ask her the identity of these walkers, the judge refused to probe the matter further.

All evidence punctured holes in the prosecution of the timing of the murder (all evidence including medical pointed to Pandya’s having been killed between 8.30-9.30 am), the position of the body and the theory behind the bullet injuries. The prosecution did not produce Pandya’s shoes, his cell phone records nor his phone.

Worst of all, this judgement of conviction on a falsified prosecution case set out by the CBI, delivered in 2007, must be seen in the context of other cases related to the Gujarat 2002 carnage. This talk of Muslim terror and large conspiracy was put into place by the agencies only after Pandya died. To show these killings as communal rather than an individual act is a sinister attempt by the prosecution to colour the case. The prosecution tried also to bring in Communalism Combat’s historic Genocide issue in a puerile and vicious effort to indicate that it carried anti-national and vitriolic material that had instigated mass murderous crimes.

The curious case of Mufti Sufiyan
The most sinister twist to this tale is the manner in which Mufti Sufiyan was escorted out of Ahmedabad via Mumbai to Kolkatta and then Bangladesh allegedly by then crime branch chief, favoured hit-man of the Modi administration, policeman DG Vanzara(later accused of extra judicial killings). By a judgement delivered on January 12, 2010, the CBI thereafter investigated Vanzara’s role in three such gruesome murders that of Sohranuddin, his wife Kauserbi and associate Tulsiram Prajapati.

Mufti Sufiyan, the CBI charge-sheet tells us is an alleged Muslim radical who had incited youth to vengeful violence following the genocide of 2002. How come then, he and his family were allowed to so easily and safely trot out of the state?  Was the presence of the mastermind of the Haren Pandya assassination through trial prove inconvenient to the very masters whomay have used their services in the bloody plot? Would their continued presence and possible confessions later unravel the existence of a more sinister plot within a plot, wheels within wheels, when political vendetta uses the terror underworld nexus for its own slimy ends?  The Times of India carried a story in mid 2007 stating that Mufti Sufiyan was under watch and there was a move to attach his properties because he suddenly absconded. So many aspects of the crime have been left un-probed. Under the political circumstances in Gujarat was it possible for accused no 13 mastermind Muftui Sufiyan, his family and associate to escape Gujarat to Dacca or Karachi without state connivance or support?

Concealing Phone Records
There is no investigation on who had access to Haren Pandya’sphone on the day of his death till 3:15 PM, when the police finally seized it. The mobile telephone carried by Haren Pandya would have indicated when he had last accessed a call or SMS. This would have been invaluable in estimating the time and place of the assault on him. At 3:15 PM when the prosecution seized the phone the screen did not indicate any missed calls or messages as it should inevitably have shown. Prosecution witnesses have admitted these facts and the defence has inferred that since both Investigating Officers were aware of the significance of calls and were also informed by the complainant (Haren Pandya’s secretary) that he had made several calls which were not picked up by Pandya between 10:30 and 11 on that fateful morning, the absence of any indication of missed calls on the screen clearly indicates that they were obviously deleted. This should have led anyone to suspect someone’s access to the phone before or after Pandya’s death. This means that apart from concealing evidence, the CBI as investigating and prosecuting agency has also been responsible for tampering with it.  On this critical issue too, the evidence of IO of the CBI Dr Gupta his testimony shifts and changes.

He first says that he found no significant calls; then says that on April 6, 2003 when he checked the phone, he could notice nocalls or messages as the battery was discharged. (answers incross examination)  The trial court called for the records from Hutch. Mysteriously,they show an outgoing call on the same day that the IO states on oath that he checked the phone, ie April 6, 2003 itself as well as a message received, which indicates that the battery was functioning and so was the phone; CBI’s Gupta (who admits that the phone was in his custody) has in fact used the phone and thus there was no way he could not
have accessed messages and calls of the day of the murder that is March 26, 2003.

The defence argued that this witness had committed perjury before the Court and should be prosecuted for it. The court did not see fit to initiate any such proceedings. It later transpires that Gupta had obtained the mobile call records as early as on March 30, 2003, four days after the event but had concealed this fact from the trial court.

CBI’s IO, Dr Gupta would have had the complete information about missed calls as well as the SMSs and their towers. He could have had conclusive information about the time and place of the telephone on the fateful morning which could have thrown light on the movements of Pandya in that period. The telephone  records were never filed in the Court and have now disappeared from the CBI records for which there is no convincing explanation. Worse, the court has left these gross discrepancies uninvestigated.
 
Besides as Sreekumar’s personal register tells us, Pandya had another phone that the state intelligence bureau on instructions from the chief minister had kept under surveillance. However the CBI completely concealed these records from the court.
 
The CBI claimed that one eyewitness is the source of the information of the crime to the police but the evidence led in the case does not corroborate this aspect of the prosecution case. It is the prosecution’s case that the eyewitness Yadram told his boss who in turn communicated the fact of killing (including site and time) to the police either directly or through others. If in fact Yadram was the first and only source of information about the crime, then whenever this information reached the police, the identity of the victim, time and place of killing as well as the fact of there being an eye witness would inevitably have been known and recorded by the police. However, the control room records and the records of the Ellis Bridge police station are silent on all these counts. On the contrary, these records,  as well as the oral evidence reveal that the police reached the spot 3 ½ hours after the alleged time of occurrence on a vague notion that something had happened in either Parimal Gardens or Law Garden. It follows that there was no definite source of information about the crime and thus there was no eye witness.  All pointers render improbable if not impossible the presence of the so-called eye witness at the time of the occurrence. The facts as appear are more suggestive of this witness finding the body after 9-30 am or so. Even the doctors conducting the post mortem fix the occurrence of the crime between 8-30 and 9-30 a.m.
 
Appointed by the union home ministry (under LK Advani) and unopposed by Modi on March 29, 2003, the CBI was quick to file its charge-sheet dated September 8, 2003 in the Haren Pandya murder case.  Eight months later was to see a new regime in New Delhi but no efforts were made at all by those appearing for the CBI before or after May 2004, after a secular UPA government was in place in New Delhi, to get those lacunae apparent in the CBI’s charge-sheet clarified through attempts at re-investigation or further investigation before the trial court.

Not satisfied with masterminding the violence post Godhra 2002 and possibly perturbed with the resistance of some of our institutions to the carnage, Modi one of its main perpetrators had begun scheming weeks into the aftermath on ways and means to divert the attention of both the public and media and also agencies of law enforcement to other directions. The assassination of Haren Pandya and the series of extra judicial killings by Modi’s favoured officers were part of the calculated diversion and form an integral part of the wider workings of a high level cover up. Other states in the country too have witnesses these ‘fake encounters’ where increasingly the police-politician-underworld nexus have been targeting young Muslims.

But only Gujarat has justified these killings in court and politically. It is another bit of a brazen design, to erode the writ of the law, equality and justice and install in its place subversive and tainted governance. Unless reopened and ruthlessly reinvestigated and then retried the Haren Pandya murder case and the politician CBI cover-up will remain an indelible stain on our politics and polity.

(* This is an excerpt from a yet to be published book by CJP secretary TeestaSetalvad, who was a part of a Concerned Citizens Tribunal that conducted a series of hearings of witnesses and survivors in the aftermath of the Gujarat 2002 genocide. It is being published in wake of the Supreme Court upholding the conviction of 12 people in the murder of Haren Pandya, a former Gujarat minister who testified against his powerful bosses and exposed their complicity in fanning the communal flames that ravaged Gujarat.The article is in two parts, this is Part Two. It was written in 2010)
 
 
 

The post Haren Pandya Murder Case: The politics and conspiracy behind the botched investigations appeared first on SabrangIndia.

12 people, Asgar Ali, Mohammed Rauf, Mohammed Parvez Abdul Kayum Sheikh, Parvez Khan Pathan Khan alias Athar Parvez, Mohammed Farroq alias Haji Farooq, Shahnawaz Gandhi, Kalim Ahmed alias Kalimullah, Rehan Puthawala, Mohammed Riaz Sareswala, Aniz Machiswala, Mohammed Yunus Sareswala and Mohammed Saifuddin were first found guilty by a special trial court, which was also hearing a case against them for the alleged attempt on the life of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jagdish Tiwari.
 
The CBI had claimed both cases were connected and part of a conspiracy to avenge the 2002 carnage. But the Gujarat High Court dropped the murder charge against the 12 in the Haren Pandya murder case. The prosecution then challenged this acquittal in the Supreme Court that has now restored the conviction and sentences of the accused.

The judgment by Justice Arun Mishra reads, “The evidence collected during the investigation in the cases revealed that both the incidents were part of the same transaction and in pursuance of a well-designed common conspiracy, they were committed. The motive was to spread terror amongst the Hindus.”
 
The SC also dismissed a PIL seeking a fresh probe filed by the NGO Common Cause, with costs to the tune of Rs 50,000/-.

 
Brief background of the case:
Pandya was found shot dead on March 26, 2003 and the gunmen still remain unidentified. But what is more curious is how the investigation progressed. CJP secretary Teesta Setalvad who was part of a Concerned Citizens Tribunal that conducted hearings of witnesses and survivors in the aftermath of the post-Godhra anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat says Pandya was punished for testifying against powerful perpetrators. In this piece that was written as a part of her yet to be published book she says, “Law Gardens, where Pandya was found dead inside a white Maruti car is a fashionably busy part of Ahmedabad but there were no inconvenient witnesses to the incident that day. The thelas selling banjara costumes and cholis that litter the border of the garden had been evicted from the area just a few days before Pandya’s murder.”

She points out the lapses in the manner in which the investigation began and the direction it took, saying, “Ellis Bridge is the closest police station to Law Gardens but mysteriously it was the Navrangpura police who first arrived at the spot. Officers of the Ellis bridge station had been mis-directed and initially told to go to the Piramal Gardens, not Law Gardens where the incident was supposed to have occurred. Halfway there, someone guided them back to the correct spot.”

The matter was first investigated by the Gujarat Police under the supervision of DG Vanzara, who was one of the key accused in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case (he was subsequently discharged from the case). Under pressure from civil society groups the case was subsequently handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Curiously the CBI never spoke to Pandya’s wife Jagruti who was the last person to speak to him. She was also not called in to testify before the special trial court.

When the Haren Pandya murder case was heard before a special trial court, the court also hearing another case where the same set of accused were facing charges for the attempt to murder Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jagdish Tiwari. The 12 men, all belonging to the minority community were convicted by the trial court. Key accused Asgar Ali of Hyderabad was awarded a life sentence, others were to serve anywhere between five years to life.

Jagruti told rediff.com in June 2007 after the trial court’s judgment came out that she found it difficult to accept it and pointed out key prosecutorial lapses saying, “For two-and-a-half years, the mobile and phone records of my husband were not produced by the CBI. The CBI investigating officer admitted during his cross examination that the CBI had procured these records as early as March 30, 2003, but he admitted in open court that the CBI has no idea where the original printouts are. Where did the original phone records disappear?” There are allegations that despite being taken off the case Vanzara continued to influence the investigation. Curiously, Jagurti subsequently went on to join the BJP in 2016 and became chairperson of the Child Rights Commission.

But the Gujarat High Court dropped the murder charges against and observed that the investigation was botched and misdirected. However, the High Court did hold them guilty under sections 120 (criminal conspiracy) and 307 (attempted murder) as well as various sections of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) in connection with the Jagdish Tiwari case.

The CBI and the state of Gujarat challenged the acquittal under murder charges and moved Supreme Court.

The post SC upholds conviction of 12 in Haren Pandya murder case appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image courtesy: Indianexpress.com
 
The Supreme Court will hear a fresh petition on February 12 seeking a new investigation into the murder of former Gujarat home minister Haren Pandya in March 2003, it posted on Friday.
 
Haren Pandya was shot dead on March 26, 2003, in his car outside Ahmedabad’s Law Garden. His wife, Jagruti Pandya, had raised questions over the initial probe in the murder, which was handled by Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch under Deputy Commissioner of Police DG Vanzara. Vanzara has since retired.
 
“A petition filed in the Supreme Court sought a fresh, court-monitored probe into the murder. The plea by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) says the need for a fresh probe had arisen in view of “some startling information that has recently come to light and has been extensively reported by the media regarding Mr Haren Pandya’s murder, information which was never investigated into by the investigating agency, the CBI,” The Indian Express reported.
 
“The petitioners said that Azam Khan—a witness in the encounter case of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kauser Bi, and associate Tulsiram Prajapati—had told a Mumbai court during the trial that “Sheikh had told him that Mr Haren Pandya was murdered as a part of a contract killing…” involving a senior IPS officer. In November last year, Khan, an associate of Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram Prajapati, said that while he had told the CBI investigator about it in 2010, the officer had refused to record it as part of his statement,” the report said.
 
The CBI had named 15 accused in Pandya’s murder. A trial court convicted 12 of them on June 25, 2007. Lack of evidence in the case made Gujarat High Court acquit all of them.

The post SC to hear petition seeking fresh probe in Haren Pandya murder case appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Ghosts from the past have an uncanny way of turning up in the present with immense potential to blight the future of the most powerful. On November 3, a key witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake encounter case told a Mumbai court that the murder of senior BJP leader and a former Gujarat minister Haren Pandya in 2003 was a contract killing executed at the behest of former IPS officer DG Vanzara.

The deposition of Azam Khan, an Udaipur based small time gangster before the CBI court has brought to life the most speculated and worst-kept secret of the time– that the murder of the up and coming Gujarat BJP leader was a political extermination at the behest of some of the most powerful in the land of the Mahatma.

Vanzara terms it as yet another conspiracy to defame him. “Azam Khan is a criminal. There are cases against him in Gujarat, Rajasthan and some other states. Even today he is in jail. Moreover his evidence is hearsay. It does not account for much under the Indian Evidence Act and is not admissible under law. Moreover when CBI recorded his statement, he did not say any such thing”.

Khan, though, had said during further cross-examination, that he had told the CBI officer, NS Raju about the contract killing but it was not taken on record on the pretext of not creating new complications.

The revelation about Pandya’s killings surfaced in the course of the proceedings in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh alleged fake killing case in 2005, in which Vanzara was an accused with the then minister of state for home Amit Shah, and IPS officers Raj Kumar Pandiyan and Dinesh MN.

They have all been discharged from the case along with other police officers such as NK Amin and Vipul Aggarwal, to name a few. According to one count, 90 of the total witnesses examined in the case so far have turned hostile. In short, the big guns are free, while lower rank officers and constabulary are facing the music.

Though fake encounters by cops have taken place earlier, these acquired a pattern during Narendra Modi’s stint as Gujarat chief minister. These encounters included those of Sadiq Jamal (2003), Ishrat Jahan and two others (2004),Sohrabuddin and his wife Kauser Bi (2005) and Tulsiram Prajapati (2006).

Almost all of them were labelled as handles of Pakistani terror agencies out to get the CM. Most of the time, the senior cop unravelling these conspiracies was led by Vanzara. Interestingly 32 police officers including six IPS officers were incarcerated in connection with a series of police encounters in Gujarat.

According to a published report, during an interrogation by a CBI team of Vanzara led by DIG Sandeep Tamagde in Sabarmati jail in September 2013, he had hinted at a political conspiracy behind Pandya’s killing. He also reportedly spoke of Sohrabuddin’s role in Pandya’s murder in March 2003. His interrogation took place after he had written an explosive letter resigning from the IPS in which he reportedly blamed Shah for the encounters.
 

Sohrabuddin Sheikh, DG Vanzara

What transpired within the CBI after Vanzara’s interrogation is not known but the fact remains that Azam Khan’s revelation echoed what the accused IPS officer had hinted in 2013 -that Pandya’ killing was political.

Haren’s father, Vithal Pandya, also termed his son’s death as a political conspiracy orchestrated by Vanzara at the behest of the then chief minister. The octogenarian, who passed away in January 2011, went down fighting. He did not agree with CBI’s line of investigation and was livid with then Union Home Minister LK Advani for blaming ISI and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, days before CBI took over the probe. 
 

“It was Advani who set the line of investigations for CBI and derailed the probe”, Vithal said. He added that his constituency, Ellisbridge in Ahmedabad, had remained peaceful even during the 2002 riots that followed the Godhra train carnage.

Haren Pandya ,was a rising star in the BJP in Gujarat and was immensely popular within the party. He held the home portfolio in the Keshubhai Patel government and revenue in the first Modi government..The first point of friction between the two was Modi’s choice of Pandya’a Ellisbridge seat to enter the Vidhan Sabha and Pandya’s refusal to oblige. Modi was subsequently elected to the Assembly from Rajkot, on a seat vacated by Vajubhai Vala, the present Governor of Karnataka.

In the immediate aftermath of the Godhra train carnage, Pandya is reported to have opposed bringing the burnt body remnants of the passengers by road from Godhra to Ahmedabad ,at a cabinet meeting. He said it would further ignite communal passions, but he was shouted down. What followed is history.

Though kept confidential, it is known that Pandya had testified before the Concerned Citizens Tribunal on the 2002 Gujarat riots. It comprised of three retired judicial luminaries. That Pandya was a marked man thereafter was known. He had also expressed fears of his likely liquidation to chosen contacts in the media as well.

Vithal Pandya never tired of pointing to the political conspiracy that led to his son’s killing. He did not even agree with the POTA court judgment on June 25, 2007 that sentenced nine people to life imprisonment for the murder of Haren. If he had been alive, the old man would have felt vindicated on August 29, 2011 when the Gujarat High Court reversed the lower court’s order terming it “perverse” and “illegal” and which did not consider scientific evidence presented in the injuries , forensic and ballistic reports.

It criticized the CBI for a “botched” and ” blinkered” investigation and said that the investigating officers” ought to be held accountable for their ineptitude, resulting in injustice, harassment of many people concerned, enormous waste of public resources and public time of court”.

It is against this backdrop that one needs to view Azam Khan’s testimony purely in relation to Haren Pandya’s case even though it links the fake encounters with it, particularly the Sohrabuddin Sheikh and Tulsiram Prajapati cases.

According to Azam’s testimony, “During a discussion with Sohrabuddin, he told me he along with Naeem Khan and Shahid Rampuri got the contract to kill Haren Pandya and they killed him. I felt sad and I told Sohrabuddin that they have killed a good person. Sohrabuddin told me that the contract to him was given by Vanzara.” Khan also testified in court that Sohrabuddin had told him that this work had come from above.

Haren Pandya’s body was found in his Maruti-800 riddled with seven bullets,with the windows rolled up except for the driver’s side.There was no blood in the car except a tiny solitary drop on the adjoining seat. One does’nt need an expert to tell you that he had possibly been abducted, killed elsewhere and the body put back in his car which was kept at the venue of his morning walk .

The investigating agencies, the Gujarat police initially and the CBI soon after, apparently seemed more intent in covering up than in exposing the real killers. The last has not been heard in the matter though the fate of Haren Pandya and many other encounters have inextricably got linked to a political see-saw.
—
*Senior Gujarat-based journalist. Blog: Wordsmiths & Newsplumbers

Courtesy: https://www.counterview.net

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I am writing this historic letter to you. I am making you aware of what is happening in the country after analysing history and assessing historic truth as well as the current situation, and warning you…. I have come to make you sleepless…. The life subscription for the Parishad is Rs. 2,000. The life subscription for Vishwa Hindu Samachar is Rs. 600. Donate Rs. 15,000 (rupees fifteen thousand) for each family of those arrested. Give the traitorous Muslims a taste of patriotism by boycotting them socially and economically……Peace cannot be attained by begging: Crores of united and powerful Hindus will be able to establish peace and security in the country.

Such a stringent economic boycott will suffocate those elements and break their backs. Then it will be difficult for them to live in any corner of the country. Friends, start this boycott from today so that no Muslim will have the guts to lift his head before us and live. Have you read this newsletter? Then make 10 copies and distribute it amongst our brethren….
— A true Hindu patriot

“Yeh kaum saamne hove nahin; yeh kaum kabhi aage badhe nain; yeh poore setting ke saath hua hai kaam!”
(That this community should not be seen or heard, should never move up in life; plans were swiftly put into operation to realise this objective)

These words, spoken by Usmanbhai Malek from Por village in Gandhinagar district barely 45 minutes drive away from the epicentre of hatred in Gujarat –Ahmedabad — on March 25, 2003, seem to sum up the situation.  The cycle shop that he had run for decades, catering to Hindus and Muslims alike, was destroyed, as were the 80 homes belonging to 400 Muslims in the post-Godhra genocide on the night of February 27-28 2002. In the traumatic months that he and other refugees from this area spent at the Mandali camp, a Hindu cycle shop was swiftly installed in its place. Today the Patel dominated village has no more use for Malek’s services and he and all other Muslims who are not solely dependent on land, face crippling economic and social boycott.

This coupled with clear attempts to pressurise victim survivors into not fighting for justice, makes everyday life in Gujarat an appalling and frightening experience.

Muslim women from over 40 households who used to work as agricultural labourers are not entertained, and youth who drove transport vehicles have had their businesses taken over. Hunger and deprivation continues to hit the 400 Muslim residents of Por, with over 70 young persons out of jobs. The total strength of this Patel dominated village is 5,000, of which Muslims number 1,100. Women were also involved in milching cattle, an occupation that is today unavailable to them as they do not have access to buffaloes that were either stolen or driven away. The mosque in Por, which was systematically pulled down using a bulldozer belonging to the municipal corpration, has however been re-built. While some of the village elders such as Nathubhai Nagar are trying to break the social boycott, others  insist that for Muslims,  the quid pro quo for leading a normal life will be their withdrawal of the pending criminal case where 35 villagers have been accused of rioting and arson. With the survivors adamant on getting justice, (senior advocate Allah Rakha is appearing for the victims), the deadlock, stealthily, continues.

In Por, Kasimbhai has been unemployed for over a year, after he lost his tabela and five milch cattle in the pre-planned destruction. He incurred a loss of Rs 1.5 lakhs and is one of the rare victims who received the full Rs 50,000 promised as house compensation. Recently he has bought, on loan, two buffaloes from a relative and is attempting to eke out a living.

A similar situation prevails in many of the other villages of Gandhinagar rural district. In Adalaj, 25 homes were rebuilt and people have returned, without work however. Kunadasa and Koba have just one Muslim home each. Jametpura has 10-15 Muslim homes, and  residents of Khoraj  with 250 homes also face stringent boycott. In Khoraj, actually, the post-Godhra tension and violence was cleverly used to capture the kabrastan by force, that too, by the panchayat leader, Ganpatbhai Patel. He summoned terrified Muslims on the night of February 27-28, 2002 itself and told them directly that if they wished to live there in peace, they would have to hand over the graveyard land to the Patels because the land lies near their homes and “aakhon mein ata tha” (it offends our sight). If they did not agree it would be burnt down. Terrified, Muslims agreed and because they were given grazing land outside the village as a substitute, no case was filed.

One year after the gruesome genocide that shocked the nation, 10 of Gujarat’s 24 districts have achieved the VHP-BJP-BD aim, penned succinctly by Chinnubhai Patel in the pamphlet quoted above, which was distributed in hundreds of thousands. In most areas of Ahmedabad and Vadodara and villages of Gandhinagar, Vadodara rural, Anand, Panchmahal, Mehsana, Kheda and Dahod, insidious economic and social boycott  continues to cripple the Muslim minority that is still reeling from the effects of  last year’s brutal violence. It is only the villages and areas that have a sizeable Muslim population that has built up a steely resistance to the politics of hatred and division through the security of numbers — ghettoisation is the stark solution in post-carnage Gujarat.

Parts of hard core Ahmedabad are no better. While overt aggression and violence has subsided, and in many areas of business and enterprise a sharp cleavage may not be visible,  as Yakubbhai Shaikh of Karnavati Travels, a prosperous monopoly transport business puts it, “Dil khule nahin” (Hearts have not opened up). Despite the police having recorded a huge loss of Rs. 25 lakhs on his Hotel, there has been no compensation forthcoming except the minimal Rs 50,000. A long-time owner of the Karnavati Hotel at Vatwa GIDC, which was burnt down and has now been re-built, he painfully recalls how non-Muslims simply do not enter the premises anymore.

“My transport business is a monopoly business and I have a 16 year old relationship with factory owners so that side is okay. I still feel however, that if they had options, I would have been dumped as so many other have been.” He is hopeful however that the passage of time will heal the schism.

Divisive and corrosive sentiments in Ahmedabad run high and deep, Courts, hospitals, bastis —none seem immune. A week ago, a well-placed advocate in the Gujarat High Court (name witheld) was shocked when he could get no doctors to examine and attend to one of the 6 accused, allegedly held for a plot to kill chief minister Narendra Modi. There is scant proof of the charges levelled against the hapless accused but when one of them fell ill, doctors he contacted simply refused to see him because one, he was Muslim and two he was an accused! So much for fair trial and justice.

In another bizarre incident some months ago, a senior advocate of the Gujarat bar quietly told his junior, a Muslim, to stop attending his chambers. While no pointed reasons were given, the generally held belief among senior members of the bar is that it was the identity of the lawyer that had guided the decision.

Naroda Gaon and Patiya will be remembered for the planned and bloody decimation of over 110 innnocents, in cold blood, led by elected representatives. The changes to these mass crimes have not yet been framed. Instead of honest and fair investigations, trumped-up charges on an FIR (No. 101/2002) filed by ASI Satuji Shivaji, which did not then name the accused, has, on August 5, 2002, falsely named and led to the arrest of one Bismillah Khan Pathan and 11 others. These 12 are believed to be eye-witnesses to MLA Dr. Maya Kotdani and Gujarat VHP general secretary, Dr. Jaideep Patel’s direct participation in the violence. It is only recently that six of them  obtained bail. What is more shocking is that none of the persons who were listed in these complaints, especially the leaders of the organisations, have been arrested, no identification parade held and no action whatsoever been taken against the police officers, despite repeated allegations and complaints of police complicity.

 Several testimonies and sworn affidavits before the Shah-Nanavati Commission reveal that witnesses have identified, by name, Guddu Chhara, Suresh Chhara, Jai Bhavani Singh as accused in heinous crimes of sexual violence and rape. Yet these men roam scot-free, as do the instigators who are men and women with clout and power. Today their freedom is a daily taunt to the survivors at Naroda Gaon and Patiya, and it makes a mockery of the process of justice in this country.
 This and most of the other   Ahmedabad cases are yet to begin, and no charges have been framed by the Sessions Court so far.

Though over 110 persons were quartered and killed at Naroda Gaon and Patiya, few bodies were recovered. Before the violence, there were 825 houses at Naroda Patiya. Only 400 homes have been repaired, and in which families have returned to live. Forty-five families from here now have homes in Vatwa, while 16 homes for widows and another 25 homes were built by the Citizens Relief Services (management of Shah-e-Alam camp) around Narol-Bombay Hotel. This makes a total of 486 families. Another  140 families who  could afford it resettled elsewhere. This makes a total of 626 families within Ahmedabad. A total of 199 families from Patiya have fled. The homes are in the same state as they were after the violence erupted. Forty-five widows here receive monthly aid. But the rest of the families, who used to work as rickshaw drivers and pullers and daily wage earners are without work, on the verge of starvation. The children cannot go to school. In all, before the violence there were 445 families at Naroda Patiya, working in nearby factories. For four-six  months they lived in camps. They were replaced at work, both men and women. Today they are all unemployed because their jobs have been filled. If they get work at all, they are paid half the daily rate. This may not be called a direct boycott but it is nevertheless a fall out of the violence. Men used to be paid Rs. 100-150 a day, working in small-scale units making plastic items, while women were paid Rs. 50. Today, if and when they get work, it is at half the amount.

But it is the raw humiliation of knowing that those guilty of unspeakable humiliations and violence roam free and taunt them that makes daily life unbearable. Fatimabi, a victim survivor who lost eight family members in the massacre, has three girls of marriageable age. She used to run a flour mill. “Earlier I used to earn Rs. 400 per day, and after paying the electricity  bill used to have Rs. 350 left over. Today, there are no Muslims to give me custom and the Hindus who used to come earlier have stopped coming to my chakki. How do I survive?”

“Ham majboori mein reh rahe hai, we have to because we have homes here. Where else can we stay? We are terrified. Every 15 days or two months when there is tension, we flee our homes. Is this living?” she asks. The last time they fled was about a fortnight ago, after Haren Pandya was killed. “Yeh koi zindagi nahin hui..this is no life..my young girls, they are taunted at by the same —s who performed those acts on so many girls and women..they roam scot- free. Guddu Chhara, Suresh Chhara, Bhavani Chhara..They taunt us that ‘we will rape you.’ We want justice,” she says, “even if we remain hungry…Roti mil jati hai; lootne ke baad aadha pet se bhi aadmi ji sakyta hai.” Hame sirf insaaf chahiye.” (Food we can get; someone who has been looted of all their worldly belongings can live with hunger. But we want justice.)
 

Legal Status
Ahmedabad

• Out of 961 registeread cases, 447 cases are being consigned away as “A” or “B” final summary.
• In sector–I, out of 15 police stations, there are 496 cases registered. Out of these, 200 cases are being consigned away as “A” or “B” summary (registered complaints are wrong or accused are not available). In 293 cases, inquiry has been completed and in 3 cases inquiry is still going on.
• In the same way, in sector–II, out of 15 police stations, there are 465 cases registered. Out of these, 214 are being consigned  away as “A” or “B” summary (in 80% cases “A” summary and in rest “B” summary), in 215 cases inquiry has been completed and in 36 cases inquiry is still going on.

Gauri Beevi Mohammed Qureshi has stated in her complaint that on February 28, 2002, the police were present but did not do anything to stop the mobs. On the contrary, the police fired at the victims, and, in this firing, the husband of Ayesha Beevi one Abidbhai Pathan and Shabnam Beevi Sheikh were killed. A number of shops were looted, houses were burnt with kerosene, petrol and gas cylinders. The police were present during this entire episode and when victims approached them, the police asked them to run away elsewhere.

KK Mysorewalla PSI has been quoted in testimonies (see Gujarat genocoide 2002) as telling victims who appealed for help that, “Today your time has come. We have been told not to help. There are orders from the top.”  In an affidavit sworn before the Shah-Nanavti Commission of Inquiry, Mohammed Iqbal, a labourer residing at Naroda Patiya,  affirms that he was eye-witness to MLA Maya Kotdani, along with others whom he identified, indulging in attacks and arson. “My family and I attempted to escape to save our lives and at that time I saw Mayaben Kotdani, Bipin Singh and some members of the VHP and Bajrang Dal. They attacked and looted my house and injured my family.”

A similar refusal by the state of Gujarat to push the justice process marks the proceedings of the trial in the Gulberg society case. The ghastly massacre of former MP, Ehsan Jafri and at least 70 others at the Gulberg society, Chamanpura on February 28, 2002, shook the conscience of the nation. Two FIRs were filed by the Inspector Erda of the Meghaninagar police station. Even now, more than a year later, the trial of the above case has not  begun. The ‘charge’ is yet to be framed.  Moreover, 18 eye-witnesses to the crime, have petitioned the trial court hearing the case in a special application, and accompanied by affidavits sworn on oath, detailing the blatant attempts to subvert the investigations. Investigations were undertaken without the preliminary and necessary legal practice of recording statements of eye–witnesses.

The charge-sheets were filed by the Gujarat police in November 2002, but the charge-sheets have excluded the names of key accused named in the FIR – Ramesh Pandey, Choti, Rajesh Dayaram Jinger, Bharat, Kali, Dilip, Gabbar, Kapil Munnabhai, Bharat Kali Mansingh, Prabhudas Jain.  Witnesses petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad, Kaushik on November 25, 2002, pointing out this discrepancy, to no avail. This amounts to the investigating agency protecting the accused..

Eye-witnesses to the quartering, slaughter and burning alive of Mr. Jaffri have testified on oath to the fact that Police Commissioner PC Pandey visited the colony at 10.30 a.m. when the Gulberg society had been under seige by a carefully orchestrated mob of thousands since 7.30 a.m. on the fateful day of February 28, 2002. The NHRC, in its confidential report on Gujarat, has stated,“Representatives of many NGOs and some prominent citizens narrated a number of cases where they contacted the police and requested them to rescue the members of the minority community under attack from the marauding mobs but their pleas evoked no response. Shri Amar Sinh Chaudhry, former Chief Minister, Gujarat narrated to the team his futile efforts in seeking police help for Shri Ahsan Jaffery, former MP. He claimed to have personally contacted the Police Commissioner, P.C.Pandey, at 10.30 A.M. on 28 February and apprised him of the imminent danger to the life of Shri Jaffrey. The Police Commissioner assured him that police assist-ance will be dispatched rapidly. He reminded him again after receiving another frantic call from Ahsan Jaffery that no police reinforcement had reached his place and that the few policemen present were ineffective and unwilling to control the violent mob. Shri Chaudhry said that he also spoke to the CM Narendra Modi in the afternoon and found him well informed about the presence of a violent crowd outside Shri Jaffrey’s house. He also spoke to the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary between 12.30 and 2.00 P.M. Shri Jaffery was burnt alive along with his family and 39 others (total killed–50).”

Trade uionist and advocate Amrish Patel, secretary of the Gujarat Mazdoor Sabha, has recently taken up 16 cases of Muslims from Ahmedabad summarily dismissed from their workplace after 10-20 years of service on grounds of identity. He will be challenging their dismissal under section 25(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act and also on grounds of social boycott. Of the 16 victimised employees, some were small dealers, three worked as watchmen and three as clerks in small businesses. This is probably for the first time that labour laws will be used to challenge the social and economic boycott of a community.

Similarly in Vadodara, over 17 persons were dismissed from the Gujarat Electricity Board following anonymous complaints on their character being received by the authorities. All of them are Muslim.

In the Savli taluka of Vadodara rural, that has 252 villages,, Muslims live in Manjusar, Tundav*, Paladhi, Lasundhra, Gothdra*, Savli*Karchia*, Vakaner*, Ranier, Devnagar, Mokshi, Bhadarva, Desar, Pandu*Dhantej*, Vaccheshwar* (*Muslims majority). Traditionally Savli was a Congress bastion; this election brought the BJP to power. The shift has also meant a distinct shift in the atmosphere with Muslims suffering discrimination and boycott. The local police is also extremely partisan. In Bhadarva, the local Masjid pulled down with a bulldozer, was not repaired, In Sokhda, the  BJP man won seats after garnering Muslim votes in a ‘compromise’ offer for their safety therafter. Dilip (Dilavar) Dadhi, a Gharasia who had run a camp for 600 refugees until May 2002 was the chief negotiator for the Muslims.The dargah at Samliah, in Savli taluka, Vadodara remains destroyed and damaged with no repairs, one year later.

At Manjusar, 3 km from Tundva (18 km from Vadodara), also in Savli taluka, Shailesh Patel, who is the VHP president of Savli taluka unit, has his wife, Mrs. Meenabehn as the taluka panchayat member of the BJP. Shailesh’s friend, Raju Sanabhai Patel (Maya Traders), has a hooch and petrol business, and the violence was led by him. Both Shailesh and Raju had gone to Ayodhya by bus; the bus returned on March 1. Three police officials here, circle police Inspector  Katara, deputy sup. of police DN Patel (allegedly responsible for most of the atrocities against Muslims), and Tundav head constable (jamadar) Pardhi, have and continue to display a strong anti-Muslim bias. Victims stated that they sit at Maya Traders and make programmes of how “Mussalmanon ko kaisa “fit” karte hain.” (How we can fix the Muslims). The atmosphere as one drives through the villages of Vadodara rural, many of which cultivate the best quality tobacco in the country is infected by terror and suspicion.

Godhra epitomises the deep divide that prevails in the Panchmahal district of Gujarat. Villagers who returned to Pandharwada village where over 70 innocents were brutally killed, continue to eke out a minimum existence, living in terror.
The manner in which the criminal trial into the Godhra mass arson is being handled raises serious questions.  Fifty-eight Kar Savaks were burnt alive in the S 6 coach of the Sabarmati Express. That the Godhara tragedy reflected abysmal failure of State intelligence, both before and after the incident is a fact that has been stated before. The unprofessional manner in which the trial has been conducted can be judged from the proceedings. The state has arreste 71 persons who have been detained allegedly violating due process of law since they have not appeared in court since last June 2002, after their arrests.

POTA has been invoked post-facto in the Godhra case, indicating malafide intent and violating the provisions of the act itself. The Ahmedabad based government Forensic Science Laboratory report has interesting findings about the mystery of the fire, that should  warrant neutral investigations but these findings are not being taken into consideration at all.

Serum has been injected into 5 accused before questions were put to them last May 2002, in gross violations of human rights laws and international regulations.

The affidavits of six relatives, including the wife of Maulana Umerji, filed before the Supreme Court in late March 03 (in the petition filed by eminent citizens and supported by the Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai urging transfer of investigations to the CBI) reveal how the due process of law has been subverted in the Godhra trial. They have appealed that in the course of the investigations fair and due process of law is not being followed, that their relatives have been wrongfully confined and illegally detained, to no avail, and therefore, the apex Court should intervene. There is a real possibility that,  in the Godhra trial, innocents will be punished and those guilty of this heinous crime will escape unpunished.
The affidavits filed by the relative of six, allegedly illegal detainees reveal:

1) The wife of Inayat Abdus Sattar Jujhara, a government servant, who was arrested for alleged involvement in the Godhra arson states that his office records show that between 11 –1 a.m on February 27, 2002 he was working at  Panan Jara Sarai Yojana, a ward of the education department of the Gujarat government. Yet, the police have stated in their statement that they have arrested him at 9 a.m.on that day when government records show to the contrary. He was wrongfully arrested and therefore his arrest was malafide.

His past record in government service has been good and he has no criminal record. Given the injustice of his arrest, she approached the Honorable trial court in an application for fair trial, yet there was no redressal.

2)The father of Ishaq Mohammad Mamdoo has also testified on oath that his son Ishaq Mohammad Mamdoo who is totally (100 per cent) blind has been wrongfully confined and named as accused in the Godhra arson. He is 24 years old and had even applied for government aid in 1997 claiming 100 per cent blindness. How could he have had any part in the crime? Due to the anguish caused to the family by the shameful detention of their visually handicapped son, his mother died out of sorrow two months ago. Their whole family has been ripped apart by the unfairness of the trial that has left them little faith in justice.

 3) The mother of Abdul Razzak, states that her son, a prominent businessman of Godhra was illegally detained for a whole year, suffering loss in personal reputation and business for alleged involvement in the arson.  She made an application to the trial court for proper investigation. Yet the court did not act. The family was kept in anguish for a whole year, her son was kept in a place they did not know, taken 156 km away to high security prisons. Shockingly, her son was also injected with serum for questioning that dulled his mind.
 

Justice Denied

Best Bakery Incident, Vadodara City
On March 1,2003 at 8.30 p.m. a mob of 200-300 people looted the Best Bakery,  set fire tao the room. A family of 5 people was burnt alive, 3 workers were hacked to death, 16 people were attacked and 4 workers injured. The incident took place after the staff from the local police Panigate police station drove by. Zahira, a victim and an eye-witness, was made to give her statement 3 times, and sign it, but the statement was not read out to her nor was she allowed to read it. Police did not come for over an hour even after being repeatedly called. The NHRC has recommended that this case requires to be investigated by CBI. The chargesheet has been filed but the trial is yet to begin.

Abasana Trial
The trial is on and victims have approached the Supreme Court for cancellation of bail after the Gujarat High Court granted bail to 29 of the 33 accused.
The criminal  trials at Ghodasar, Kheda, Kalol and Sardarpur Mehsana are underway.            

 4)  The wife and brother of of Abdur Rehman Yusuf Dhantiya have also stated that he has been illegally detained in connection with the Godhra arson when he was not even in Godhra at the time. He was in Bhudaaya, 7 kilometres away at a flour mill at the GIDC there. The person falsely accused was, it is their contention, helping to put out the fire.  Yet a man who was helping the police with water to douse the fire has been illegally detained and this shows malafide intent of the authorities. Due to this, they even approached the trial court urging for proper investigation.

5)  The allegedly illegal detention of Maulana Umerji is also a case in point. The accused, a religious preacher with a strong social conscience, has been illegally detained since February 6, 2003 and denied basic rights as a prisoner. His health, which is very frail, is faulty, he has been refused even a walking stick.

His record, during the past communal disturbances of Godhra,  in 1965, 1969, 1980 and 1989, when he helped the authorities to maintain peace by being active part of a peace committee are well known. Local DMs, DSPs and government officials have appreciated his role at times of conflict.

Mehsana is another district still reeling under the politics of the sangh parivar. While Muslims of Dasaj town have managed to carve out a secure corner for themselves —Dasaj proved a challenge to the BJP-VHP onslaught from over 45 villages last year when they held out against the onslaught led by MLA Naran Laloo Patel and others and moreover also gave shelter to refugees from nearby villages.

Says, advocate Yunusbhai Khan Faridkhan Pathan “ Position theek hai” The position is alright as far as survival goes. People living in Dasaj, about  1000-1200 of the total population of 5,500 have been left alone because we had put up a resistance…But the economic boycott is strong. They don’t let us buy from their shops; kheto mein kaam nahin karne dete. (They don’t let us work in their farms) Kaam aur roji roti cheen liya hai.(They have snatched away our daily earning)  As many as 50-60 labourers are jobless.Whatever we have is land, which is badly affected by drought this year.”

Residents in and around Dasaj  cannot even step into Patel areas of Dasaj town, nor work in their fields. The worst impact is the denial of access to shops with basic commodities —electric/cement/milk/vegetables/medical. The shops are all located on ‘their’ (Patel) side and they simply do not let the Muslim residents use them.

Says Pathan, “Even for medicines we have to go 16 km away to a town like like Sidhpur where the local situation is better. In Dasaj the boycott is very strong. The medical shop belongs to a Prajapati  and we are not allowed to go there. Dr. Narottambhai Patel, refuses to even treat us whereas one other Patel, Dr. Laksmanbhai Patel does come to our areas to give us treatment; Narottambhai follows the pratibandh (boycott).” As a result of this sustained and successful denial of access to basic amenities, Muslims have now set up their own rented vegetable outlet and shop for groceries.  They have also made arrangements for a Muslim khalifa (barber) since the Hindu one does not or cannot meet their requirements and a Muslim dhobi too, has been brought to Dasaj for its residents.

In the land of Gandhi, his bitter detractors have managed to sow deep distrust and division.

Schooling remains a critical problem for the residents of Dasaj because, again, the school for Stds IV-X, to which about 70 Muslim children need to go, is located in a Patel mohalla. The school for the little ones is regarded as relatively safe as it is at Char Rasta, Indira Nagar, a mixed mohalla, which is not such a frightening prospect.

Elderly residents from Dasaj including chacha Hatikhan Hayat Khan Pathan ex-sarpanch of the town, who had testified before a national audience in April last year and even met the then President, KR Narayanan, is bitter and sad. “Bahishkar chaloo hai… Dil toot gaye; Allah ke madat se Dasaj bach gaya. (The boycott is on. Hearts have been broken. Due to the will of god, Dasaj was saved.)The main aim was to destroy the Muslims of Dasaj who, living in 150 homes, faced an attack of huge mobs from 45 villages. “They did not succeed but we still suffer.”

Of the other towns in Mehsana district, Siddhpur and Mehsana itself are  manageable. Businesses on the highway, too, continue.

But Unjha, a huge agricultural market, has been purged of Muslims.There was unmentionable violence and marginalisation; so no one returned. The land on which the Mosque and Madrassa stood—that were destroyed by a bulldozer—is today still in the possession of the collector. Earlier, 100 persons from Dasaj would go to earn their living at Unjha, in different businesses. “This is out of the question now…who knows whether we will come back?”

Kadih is another economic centre where some business and earnings for the minority have been possible.  The former MLA and minister Niteen Patel who led the violence lost in the elections and has been replaced by a candidate from the Thakore community who has helped to restore a semblance of normalcy.

In Umta gaon, in Mehsana, where KPS Gill himself had started a rehabilitation programme, though 225 homes were built, a bitter boycott against the minorities continues. “Intermingling has stopped,” says one resident afraid of revealing his identity. “Earlier businesses ran on the barter principle; sharing of resources. Now none of that is possible. Even our barbers are separate. Bahut gandha hua.”(It is a terrible development).

No Muslims reside in Maktoopur anymore;  25 homes were destroyed and former residents are now settled in Sidhpur and Mehsana. Here, too, the Mosque was destroyed and the private land on which they stood is today being held by the collector.

Similarly, there are no Muslims left in Pilodra village though the Mosque still stands here. In  Kuwasna, Muslim residents have been unable to return because the local sarpanch is trying to bullying them into assuring the other villagers that they will return but not worship audibly. “Azaan nahin dena” (Do not give the call to prayer.)

Visnagar in Mehsana saw two major carnages were over 20 people were slaughtered brutally. None have returned to live in the Dipla Darwaza area, which is in the mdst of the Patel locality, and where severe betrayal was experienced as residents had been assured of their safety by their neighbours before they were attacked. In Pathan mohalla 13/14 families have gone back to live.

Similarly, in Sardarpur, where there was another brutal carnage,  about one and a half months back some Muslims have returned. They have no desire to stay there however. “It is a matter of months or a year. We are simply waiting for a decent price for our land and we will sell. There can be no question of living there, with those memories any more.”

Says Shahabuddin Nizamuddin Kazi, an employee of the State Transport corporation, who took three months leave to run a camp for 1,000 destitute refugees, speaks of the terrible situation at Chansama in Mehsana where there used to be 110 Muslim homes. “There is not a trace of them now. They have fled to Patan, 17 kilometres away. The land lies without owners, it is a matter of time. The homes, devastated, stand as painful relics. The entire topography of many of our villages has changed, been wiped out in front of our eyes.”

Amen.           

Archived from Communalism Combat, April 2003 Year 9  No. 86, Cover Story 1

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