Recorded calls reveal cop-politician-rioter nexus in Gujarat

Data from phone calls made by top Gujarat police officers, politicians and riot suspects, during the post-Godhra riots of 2002, in Gujarat, provides incriminating evidence of a wider involvement in the Naroda Patiya and Gulbarg Society massacres

Analysis of phone records by the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), an NGO representing the interests of riot victims, indicates that top police officials responsible for controlling the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat, in 2002, were not at the scene at the time the two worst attacks against the Muslim community took place.

Records from two cellphone service-providers of calls made before, during and after the riots indicate that, following calls from top politicians including the chief minister of Gujarat, the policemen moved to more peaceful areas.

The records -- of nine different individuals -- also indicate that top cops, politicians like Home Minister Govardhan Jadaphia and perpetrators of the riots like Babu Bajrangi were regularly in touch even as Muslims were being butchered in Naroda Gam, Naroda Patiya and Gulbarg Society.

The JSM presented an analysis of mobile phone conversations between February 25 and March 7, 2002, from Ahmedabad and Godhra, to the Nanavati-Shah Judicial Commission investigating the Gujarat riots, on July 21.

According to Mukul Sinha, a lawyer with JSM, the analysis contradicts the claims of police officials that they had done their best to quell the riots. “We have managed to co-relate the phone calls and numbers which were given in a CD by Rahul Sharma (a top police official) to the Nanavati Commission. On the basis of these calls, we have analysed the role of top police officers in a particular area, Zone 4 and 5, and the Joint Commissioner, Section 2, covering the Naroda and Meghaninagar (where Gulbarg Housing Society is located) areas,” says Sinha.

“These phone calls lead to some sort of a pattern. Our findings given to the Commission show that police officers left the places during the crucial time, with their strike force. The calls show these officers moved away… So, what these officers told the Commission earlier, that they were overpowered by the mob, is wrong as these calls are telling us a story that they moved away. In fact, whenever the police officers move it is preceded or followed by calls from a politician or even the home minister,” Sinha adds.

“The mobile phone records of five (BJP) politicians, including Chief Minister Narendra Modi, show they were all present in Shahibaug locality when the riots were taking place on February 28, 2002,” says Sinha. Displaying graphs that he has prepared, Sinha shows how senior politicians and police officers were also in touch with some of the riot accused.

Among key individuals implicated in the nexus is the senior-most officer in the area, M K Tandon, then Joint Commissioner of Police of Ahmedabad’s Sector 2, P B Gondiya, Deputy Commissioner of Police of Zone 4, Mayaben Kodnani, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Naroda, Jaideep Patel, General Secretary of another Hindu fundamentalist organisation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bipin Panchal, a BJP worker accused in the Naroda case, and Bajrangi, also accused in the Naroda case.

On February 28, at around 3 pm, Gulbarg Society was attacked by a 20,000-strong mob. At 4.30 pm the same day, the mob moved to Naroda Patiya. Over the next four hours, 83 people were butchered, many of them burnt alive.

The phone records show that top cops in charge of these areas were not in their designated jurisdictions between the critical hours of 3 pm and 8 pm on February 28, 2002.

When Gulbarg Society was attacked, between 3 pm and 4.30 pm, P B Gondiya, in whose jurisdiction Naroda Patiya falls, was away in the Revdi Bazaar area. Later, between 4.30 pm and 8 pm, as Naroda Patiya was attacked, Gondiya was in the Gulbarg Society area. He then moved back to Revdi Bazaar around 7.30 pm, and then on to police headquarters in the Shahibaug area, at around 8 pm.

Cellphone records reveal that all this time Gondiya was in touch with Commissioner of Police P C Pandey and Joint Commissioner of Police M K Tandon who was also absent from both Naroda Patiya and Gulbarg Society while the rioters were on the rampage.

Between 3 pm and 4.30 pm, when Gulbarg Society was attacked, Tandon was in the Revdi Bazaar and Rakhial areas. And during the riots in Naroda Patiya, between 4.30 pm and 8 pm, Tandon was moving between Gulbarg Society and police headquarters in the Shahibaug area.

Cellphone records reveal that during this time, Tandon was in touch with Commissioner of Police P C Pandey, DCP (Zone V) R J Sawani and DCP (Zone IV) P B Gondiya.

By contrast, members of rightwing Hindu groups and rightwing politicians were very much present as rioters attacked and killed members of the minority community. Like Jaideep Patel, VHP General Secretary, who was in the Naroda Patiya area from 12 noon until 8 pm on February 28 -- the time both Gulbarg Society and Naroda Patiya were being attacked. Cellphone records reveal that during this time he was in touch with State Home Minister Govardhan Jadaphia, DCP (Zone V) R J Sawani and Bipin Panchal.

Panchal was present in the Naroda area from 11.40 am until 8 pm on February 28. His phone records reveal he had several conversations with Jadaphia and Patel, from Naroda.

Also present in the area was Kodnani, who has always maintained that she was in Gandhinagar on February 28. Her cellphone records prove that she was in the Naroda Patiya area until 5 pm and later moved to the Shahibaug area. During this time, she was in touch with Patel and Sawani.

Likewise, Bajrangi’s call records show he was present in the Naroda area from 11 am until 8 pm.

For over four years, those working for justice in Gujarat have been decoding more than 4 million phone calls to prove the police-administration-politician nexus. This analysis of phone records, they say, proves how the administration, the police, politicians and members of the Hindu fundamentalist group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, colluded to massacre Muslims in Gujarat.

Sinha believes these records establish without a doubt what he calls “culpable negligence and links between the perpetrators of violence, the administration and the political establishment”.

After presenting its report on CD before the Commission, on July 21, as directed by the former, the JSM requested that the Commission screen its contents. The Commission said it would do so only after the Gujarat government had submitted its own analysis.

It issued an ultimatum to the Gujarat government to submit its analysis report on compact disc within two weeks, failing which the Commission said it would not entertain any submissions on the issue.

The state government has failed to submit its report to the Commission despite an order, on May 12, that both parties submit their analysis reports on July 21.

Source: InfoChange