July 25, 2013 Press Release The decision to hand over bodies to Jaideep Patel, general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and co-accused and collaborator in the carefully orchestrated conspiracy executed by A-1 Narendra Modi, was a deliberate, criminal and conscious act that must be prosecuted as it was aimed at handing over Gujarat’s streets to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) so that targeted violence against innocent sections of the Muslim minorities could be spread and unleashed. Instead of limiting the violation and agitation to Godhra city after the tragic train burning on 27.2.2002, where curfew was rightly declared by 10 a.m., curfew orders were absent or deliberately delayed elsewhere and Gujarat’s streets were handed over, the police and administration consciously neutralised for bloodshed to ensue. This was argued by advocate Mihir Desai on the eighth day of arguments for the Zakia Jafri Protest Petition before the 11th Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court, Ahmedabad today. This was a systematically thought out game plan executed by sections of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and VHP, where office bearers and influential functionaries collaborated in the mass and targeted violence. Reading out from extensive records of the SIT that had been suppressed from both the Supreme Court and the Amicus Curiae, records obtained from the then DGP, Gujarat in 2010, former DGP Mahapatra (annexures to his affidavit before the Nanavati Commission) and also annexures to former ADGP-Intelligence RB Sreekumar’s affidavit filed in July 2002, advocate for Zakia Jafri and Citizens for Justice and Peace pointed out how the state home department headed by A-1 Home Minister Narendra Modi was aware and warned of the excessive communal mobilisation before the Godhra tragedy on 27.2.2002 and yet chose to deliberately and criminally ignore taking adequate preventive action. (Annexed to this press release are some of these messages that are part of the Protest Petition, Page 192-199 Volume 1). Ashok Narayan AC Home and also co-accused in the complaint mentions this in his statement and yet SIT that was mandated by the Supreme Court on the basis of the complaint dated 8.6.2006 to investigate every aspect of the wider criminal conspiracy deliberately chose not to deal with this at all. The call for Bandh by the VHP that was immediately supported by the ruling BJP and knowledge of this was with the administration from 1230 hours on 27.2.2002 while A-1 Modi was still at Gandhinagar, while the Assembly session was on was also part of the calibrated conspiracy to hand over the streets to the VHP. Scoffing at Modi’s statement before the SIT where he states that he came to know of the BJP support for the bandh only on the evening of February 27, 2002, Mihir Desai also read from a detailed analysis of the phone call records of the chief minister. Annexed to the Protest Petition at Annexure Volume IV, this Analysis carries startling details that show that from the seven landlines available to the chief minister at his office and residence, only a handful (barely six to seven calls are received on the fateful day) of which one is from VHP strongman Jaideep Patel, also a co-accused. Reminding the 11th Magisterial Court hearing the protest petition that the first two calls made by the chief minister, Accused Nos 1 from the his PS AP Patel’s Phone, two were to Jaideep Patel on 27.2.2002 to despatch him to Godhra, take control of the situation, further inflame passions, transport the bodies to Godhra when law and procedure demanded that only the police and administration should have been given the bodies, that too to dispose of quietly after identification by their families. Despite the fact that such identification was not completed the VHP was allowed by a top level decision a few run of the streets. The SIT in a superficial and biased investigation had examined several officials of the chief minister’s office (CMO) but consciously failed to record the statement of AP Patel. Why demanded Desai? Worst of all was the conduct of the SIT in keeping the Supreme Court, the Amicus Curiae and even the Magistrate’s Court in the dark about the host of documentary evidence that substantiates charges of criminal conspiracy, violent communal build up and attacks on the minorities from the afternoon of February 27, 2002 itself. One such example, Desai pointed out from the records of the SIT was a letter from secretary CJP, Teesta Setalvad (April 2011) to AK Malhotra, IO SIT about the sudden memory returning to A-29 former Commissioner of Police PC Pande when, only after the Supreme Court orders further investigation on 15.3.2011 does he produced CDs with 3,500 pages of scanned Police Control Room messages of the Ahmedabad City. Pande’s memory lapse for nine years is ignored, said Desai, but Sanjiv Bhatt’s memory lapse of seven years is commented upon heavily, sarcastically commented Desai. The role and motive of the SIT was and is clearly to not investigate serious charges thoroughly and protect powerful accused. Arguments will continue on Friday.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:19:25 +0000
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