Release of Tehelka Tapes in the Public Domain - Press conference invitation Ahmedabad (22 March 2010)

Citizens for Justice and Peace



URGENT
Press Release



Release of Tehelka Tapes in the Public Domain

Selected Tapes of the Sting Operation where Interviewees who speak of the Direct and Indirect Role of Shri Narendra Modi in the 2002 massacre

Press Invite

Press Conference: Victim Survivors and CJP address the Press

Venue: PRASHANT, DRIVE IN ROAD

Time: 2 p.m.

Date Monday, March 22, 2010

The summons to chief minister Narendra Modi on charges of mass murder and criminal conspiracy is historic and unprecedented. There is enough prima facie evidence to lodge an FIR against the accused that includes the chief minister.

The present complaint against chief minister Narendra Modi and 61 others is being investigated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) following an order of the Supreme Court of India in SLP 1088/2008 filed by Smt Zakia Ahsan Jafri and Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) asking for registration of an FIR on charges of mass murder and criminal conspiracy. This complaint was dated June 8, 2006 and went uninvestigated and non-registered by the Gujarat police who was by the time it was sent, headed by Shri PC Pande former Commissioner of Police Ahmedabad, by then promoted to senior most police officer, Director General of Police , Gujarat.



___________________________________________________________________________

Nirant, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai – 400 049. Ph: 2660 2288 email: cjp02in@yahoo.com, teesteesta@gmail.com

While the matter was still in the Gujarat High Court a tremendous boost to the complainants was given by the exposure of the extrajudicial confessions of Tehelka’s Operation Kalank (October 25-27 2007) that, in many parts spoke of the direct role of chief minister Narendra Modi in directing and masterminding the massacre. These tapes have been authenticated by the CBI under direct orders of the National Human Rights Commission. Both the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court of India directed that they be used as evidence at the appropriate time. The detailed and extremely courageous exposure by Tehelka and its then correspondent Ashish Khetan also point to the involvement of several persons in the conspiracy to commit mass murder and economic destruction.

Today, Tehelka, a magazine devoted to the public interest has permitted the release of portions of these tapes in the public domain. Today we release those portions that expose (a) the arms and bombs distribution in different parts of Gujarat b efore the Godhra incident ie Februaru 27 2002 and b) the direct or indirect role of Shri Modi alleged by BJP and VHP/Bajran Dal cades on camera that amount to extra judicial confessions. We, at CJP representing the victim survivors of the Gujarat genocidal carnage of 2002 acknowledge the role of Tehelka , express our gratitude to Tehelka and put these out in the public domain in the public interest.


Tehelka’s Operation Kalank

Modi’s Role

I. Babu Bajrangi (Patel) Role in Massacre



Modi’s Role In Helping Bajrangi Abscond

Bajrangi also speaks of

How Police Machinery was made ineffective on Modi’s Instructions

Manipulation of the Judiciary



2. Arvind Pandya State Government Lawyer

“Modi Nahi Hota To Kuch Nahi Hota”

Modi’s Role in Subverting Entire Criminal Justice System


3. Accountant MS University DHIMANT BHAT

Speaks of Modi’s Direct Role & VHP Meteting on Night of February 27, 2002 planning the post Godhra Conspiracy



4. HARESH BHATT former MLA Godhra

Speaks of Three Days given by Modi to do as they will

5. RAJENDRA VYAS VHP Ahmedabad City President

In charge of Train (Sabramati Express) speaks of the behaviour on board the train

6. SURESH RICHARD CHARA from NARODA PATIA (AN ACCUSED)

Modi’s Visit to Patia on evening of Fenruary 28 2002 to garland murderers and rapists saying they have accomplished a wonderful job


8. DHAWAL PATEL VHP ZILLA SANJOYAK SABARKANTHA



Speaks of Arms Distribution prior to the Gpdhra Trian Burning Pointing

to A Conspiracy

9. ANIL PATEL Gujarat VHP Vibhag Pramukh



Arms Distribution prior to the Gpdhra Trian Burning Pointing to A Conspiracy

Apart from other tapes of the Gulberg Accused, a Trial that has been stayed by the apex court

Please do attend and give wide coverage to the conference.

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Teesta Setalvad

Secretary






TEHELKA TRANSCRIPTS MODI’S ROLE

(EXCERPTS)


(EXCERPTS)

("http://www.tehelka.com/story)


What They Said About Modi

NARENDRA MODI’s anger was palpable after the Godhra incident; he vowed revenge. Haresh Bhatt, the then national co-coordinator of the Bajrang Dal, was part of the meeting in which Narendra Modi told them they could do whatever they wanted for the next three days. After that, Bhatt says, “He asked us to stop and everything came to a halt.”

RAJENDRA VYAS, the VHP’s Ahmedabad city president, was consoled by Modi, who said, “Rajendrabhai, calm yourself, everything will be taken care of.”

NOT ONLY DID THE MODI government allow the mob fury to continue unabated, it also tried to shelter the perpetrators from the law. Modi himself arranged for Babu Bajrangi, the prime accused in the Naroda Patiya case, to stay at Gujarat Bhavan in Mount Abu, and transferred two judges to help Bajrangi get bail

SINCE THE POLICE were in control all over Gujarat, Modi instructed them to side with the Hindus, thus giving the rioters a free hand for three days until pressure from higher quarters necessitated the calling in of the army

AFTER THE NARODA PATIYA carnage, the chief minister himself went to the site and acknowledged the efforts of the Chhara tribe, who were key participants in the massacre at Naroda Patiya

ARVIND PANDYA, government counsel, is convinced that Modi’s strong leadership made the post-Godhra carnage possible

SURESH RICHARD CHARA (accused in Naroda Patia Massacre)

Richard: [On the day of the massacre] we did whatever we did till quite late in the evening… at around 7.30… around 7.15, our Modibhai came… Right here, outside the house… My sisters garlanded him with roses…

TEHELKA: Narendrabhai Modi…

Richard: Narendra Modi… He came with black commandos… got down from his Ambassador car and walked up here…. All my sisters garlanded him… a big man is a big man after all…

TEHELKA: He came out on the road?

Richard: Here, near this house… Then he went this way… Looked at how things were in Naroda…

TEHELKA: The day the Patiya incident happened…

Richard: The same evening…

TEHELKA: February 28…

Richard: 28…

TEHELKA: 2002…

Richard: He went around to all the places… He said our tribe was blessed… He said our mothers were blessed [for bearing us]…

TEHELKA: He came at about 5 o’clock or at 7?

Richard: Around 7 or 7.30… At that time there was no electricity… Everything had been burnt to ashes in the riots…Richard:We’d finished burning everything and had returned… That was when the police called us… They said some Muslims were hiding in this sewer… When we went there, we saw their houses had been completely burned down but seven or eight of them had hidden in the gutter… We shut the lid on it… If we’d gone in after them, we might have been in danger… We closed the lid and weighted it down with big boulders… Later, they found eight or ten corpses in there… They’d gone there to save their lives, but... they died of the gases down there… This happened in the evening… the dhamal [killing spree] went till night, till about 8.30…

TEHELKA: So you went in again….

Richard:We were inside… By evening, things had cooled down… We were tired also… After all, a man gets tired out… Hurling stones, beating with pipes, stabbing, all this… The way we came out from inside could only be done by a man of strong heart…

• • •
Richard: Mayaben was moving around all day in an open jeep…

TEHELKA: On the day of the Patiya massacre…

Richard: [She was saying] Jai Shri Ram, Jai Shri Ram… wearing a saffron headband… She kept raising slogans… She said, carry on with your work, I’m here [to protect you]… She was wearing a white sari and had on a saffron band… I had also tied on a saffron band…

• • •
TEHELKA: It is being said the Chharas also committed rapes…

Richard: Now look, one thing is true… bhookhe ghuse to koi na koi to phal khayega, na [when thousands of hungry men go in, they will eat some fruit or the other, no]… Aise bhi, phal ko kuchal ke phek denge [in any case, the fruit are going to be crushed and thrown away]... Look, I’m not telling lies… Mata is before me [gesturing to an image of a deity]… Many Muslim girls were being killed and burnt to death anyway, some people must have helped themselves to the fruit…

TEHELKA: There must have been a couple of rapes…

Richard: Might even have been more… then there were the rest of our brothers, our Hindu brothers, VHP people and RSS people… Anyone could have helped themselves… who wouldn’t, when there’s fruit?… The more you harm them, the less it is… I really hate them… don’t want to spare them… Look, my wife is sitting here but let me say…the fruit was there so it had to be eaten… I also ate… I also ate… I ate once

TEHELKA: Just once?Richard: Just once… then I had to go killing again… [turns to relative Prakash Rathod and talks about the girl he had raped and killed]… That scrap-dealer’s girl, Naseemo… Naseemo that juicy plump one… I got on top…

TEHELKA: You got on top of her…

Richard: Yes, properly…

TEHELKA: She didn’t survive, did she

Richard: No, then I pulped her… Made her into a pickle…

• • •






BABU BAJRANGI

What They Said About Modi

‘To Get Me Out On Bail, Narendrabhai Changed Judges Thrice’

Transcript (EXCERPT): BABU BAJRANGI

Modi has a definite soft spot for the man who would later stall the film Parzania. The regard is mutual

AUGUST 10, 2007

TEHELKA: The day Patiya happened, didn’t Modi support you?

Bajrangi: He made everything all right, otherwise who would have had the strength... It was his hand all the way... If he’d told the police to do differently, they would have f****d us.... they could have... they had full control…

TEHELKA: They had control?

Bajrangi: They were very much in control all over the city, all over Gujarat… [But] for two days, Narendrabhai was in control… from the third day… a lot of pressure came from the top… Sonia-wonia and all came here…

• • •

TEHELKA: Didn’t Narendrabhai come to meet you [in jail]?

Bajrangi: If Narendrabhai comes to meet me, he’ll be in deep trouble… I didn’t expect to see him… Even today, I don’t expect it…

TEHELKA: Did he ever talk to you over the phone?

Bajrangi: That way I do get to speak to him… but not just like that… The whole world starts singing…

TEHELKA: But when you were absconding, then he…..

Bajrangi: Hmm… I did speak to him twice or thrice…

TEHELKA: He’d encourage you…

Bajrangi: Marad aadmi hai [he’s a real man], Narendrabhai… If he were to tell me to tie a bomb to myself and jump... it wouldn’t take even a second… I could sling a bomb around me and jump wherever I was asked to… for Hindus…

TEHELKA: Had he not been there,then Naroda Patiya, Gulbarg etc…

Bajrangi:Wouldn’t have happened.Would’ve been very difficult.

• • •

SEPTEMBER 1, 2007

TEHELKA: Did Narendrabhai come to Patiya the day of the massacre?

Bajrangi: Narendrabhai came to Patiya… He could not make it to the place of the incidents because there were commando-phamandos with him… But he came to Patiya, saw our enthusiasm and went away… He left behind a really good atmosphere…

TEHELKA: Said you were all blessed…

Bajrangi: Narendrabhai had come to see that things didn’t stop the next day… He went all around Ahmedabad, to all the places where the miyas [Muslims] were, to the Hindu areas… told people they’d done well and should do more…

• • •Bajrangi: [After the massacre] the commissioner issued orders [against me]… I was told to leave my home… I ran away… Narendrabhai kept me at… the Gujarat Bhavan at Mount Abu for fourand- a-half months… After that, [I did] whatever Narendrabhai told me to… Nobody can do what Narendrabhai has done in - Gujarat… If I did not have the support of Narendrabhai, we would not have been able to avenge [Godhra]… [After it was over,] Narendrabhai was happy, the people were happy, we were happy… I went to jail and came back… and returned to the life I’d led before.

• • •

Bajrangi: Narendrabhai got me out of jail…… He kept on changing judges…. He set it up so as to ensure my release, otherwise I wouldn’t have been out yet... The first judge was one Dholakiaji... He said Babu Bajrangi should be hanged — not once, but four-five times, and he flung the file aside... Then came another who stopped just short of saying I should be hanged… Then there was a third one… By then, four-and-a-half months had elapsed in jail; then Narendrabhai sent me a message... saying he would find a way out... Next he posted a judge named Akshay Mehta… He never even looked at the file or anything…. He just said [bail was] granted… And we were all out... We were free….. For this, I believe in God… We are ready to die for Hindutva...





What They Said About Modi

‘His Rage Was Great’

Transcript: RAMESH DAVE

The fury Modi evinced at Godhra was understandable to a fellow Sangh die-hardThe fury Modi evinced at Godhra was understandable to a fellow Sangh die-hard

JUNE 12, 2007

Ramesh Dave:We went to the [VHP] office that night… the atmosphere was very disturbing… Everybody felt that [we had taken it] for so many years… Narendrabhai gave us great support…

TEHELKA: What was his reaction when he reached Godhra?

Dave: In Godhra, he gave a very strong statement… He was in a rage… He’s been with the Sangh from childhood… His anger was such… he didn’t come out into the open then but the police machinery was turned totally ineffective…

What They Said About Modi

‘He Has Done What No CM Ever Has’

Transcript: HARESH BHATT

A Bajrang Dal leader in 2002, Bhatt cannot fathom the opposition to his icon

JUNE 1, 2007

TEHELKA: What was Narendra Modi’s reaction when the Godhra incident happened?

Haresh Bhatt: I can’t tell you this… but I can say it was favourable… because of the understanding we shared at that time…

TEHELKA: Tell me something… Did he…

Bhatt: I can’t give a statement... But what he did, no chief minister has ever done …

TEHELKA: I won’t quote it anywhere…For that matter… I am not even going to quote you

Bhatt: He had given us three days… to do whatever we could. He said he would not give us time after that… He said this openly...After three days, he asked us to stop and everything came to a halt…

TEHELKA: It stopped after three days… Even the army was called in.

Bhatt: All the forces came… We had three days… and did what we had to in those three days...

TEHELKA: Did he say that?

Bhatt: Yes… That is why I am saying he did what no chief minister can do…

TEHELKA: Did he speak to you?

Bhatt: I told you that we were at the meeting.
and the upper castes too have come out now in support of the Parivar…

What They Said About Modi

‘Were Modi Not A Minister, He Would Have Burst Bombs’

Transcript: ARVIND PANDYA

The Gujarat CM is the Hindu samaj’s new saviour, says the government counsel in the Nanavati-Shah Commission

JUNE 6, 2007

Arvind Pandya: [The Muslims of Godhra] thought they could get away with it because the Gujarati is mild by nature. In the past, they had beaten the Gujarati, they have even beaten the entire world, and nobody has shown any courage… Nobody had ever resisted them… They thought they’d get away with it just like they always do, but they used to get away with it because there was Congress rule here earlier… To get their votes, the Congress would suppress Gujaratis and Hindus… But this time, they were thrashed… It is Hindu rule now… All of Gujarat is ruled by Hindus, and that too from the VHP and the BJP…

JUNE 8, 2007

TEHELKA: Sir, is it true that when Modi went to Godhra on February 27, that VHP workers attacked him?

Pandya: No, they didn’t. It’s like this… There are 58 bodies… and it’s evening… people are bound to say,
what have you done…

TEHELKA: From 8 in the morning till evening, he didn’t land up… So, when things got heated, then Modi ji got angry and he…

Pandya: No it’s not like that… Modi’s been on our line for a long time… Forget that matter… But he’s occupying a post, so naturally there are more limitations… and he has quite a few… It is he who gave all signals in favour of the Hindus… If the ruler is hard, then things can start happening…

TEHELKA: Did you meet… Narendra Modi after he returned from Godhra on the 27th?

Pandya: No, I will not answer queries on this… I shouldn’t...

TEHELKA: Sir, I want to know what was his first reaction?

Pandya: When Narendra Modi first heard it over the phone, his blood was boiling… Tell me, what else do I say… I’ve given you some hints and I can’t reveal more than that… nor should I say it…

TEHELKA: I wanted to know this… what his first reaction was…

Pandya: No, his reaction was like this: if he were not a minister, he would have burst bombs… If he had the capacity and was not a minister he would have detonated a few bombs in Juhapura [a Muslimdominated locality in Ahmedabad].


TEHELKA TRANSCRIPTS (EXCERPTS)

MEETINGS HELD TO PLAN MASSACRE

Conspirators & Rioters

‘The Idea Came From Modi Himself’

Transcript: DHIMANT BHATT

The chief auditor of MS University, Bhatt reveals the minute planning and mobilisation that went into the attacks

MAY 19, 2007

Dhimant Bhatt: I have two charges… I am chief auditor for the entire university [MSU] as well as chief accounts officer… this is a financial matter… everybody needs funds… this is why it is hectic… I am a staunch Hindu… suppose somebody from the Sangh says we have to promote Hindu fundamentalism, I will be the first to volunteer… I will go and say, brothers, put the Sangh’s lathis aside and pick up AK-56s … pick up AK-56s because if you have to develop Hinduism, it is clear who the enemies are… There are two who are against Hinduism… Muslims, who are open… but the Christians… they are like a bacterial virus … and there’s a third, the Communists, who are developing now… red waale… If you have to fight them, you need power and that power will not come from the lathi… only the bullet will do… we go to RSS shakhas … pick up the lathi and use it… All that is fine but now they should be replaced with AKs and a Hindu
brigade should be formed…

• • •
Bhatt: After Godhra, there was this reaction and a certain climate was created in the Parivar by the top leaders, meaning the RSS, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, the BJP and the Durga Vahini… and in that we had Narendra Modi’s support… Let people say what they like, [we had] support in the sense that if Hindus are going to be burnt like this… if conspiracies are going to be hatched to burn Hindus… they wanted to burn the whole train [the Sabarmati Express]… and now if we don’t do anything, if we don’t generate an adequate reaction, another train will be set on fire…. This was the idea, the thought that came from him [Modi]… I was
present in the meeting…

TEHELKA: Where, sir…

Bhatt: It was held in Baroda itself…at a secret place…

TEHELKA: After Godhra …

Bhatt: Immediately after. The same day as Godhra… there were two meetings, one at Ahmedabad and one at Baroda… on what action we were to take… everybody was present … the BJP, the RSS, the Parishad… it was decided that we would not take this any longer… if we have the guts, we should react… so everyone felt, unanimously, that since we didn’t want to be on the defensive, we should start that night itself…

TEHELKA:Was this a meeting of the top leadership or of local leaders or of the ground workers?

Bhatt: Actually it was the local leaders… The message came from the top leaders… the local leaders implemented it and the workers spread it…

TEHELKA: So how many people were present at that meeting?

Bhatt: About 65 to 70.

TEHELKA: 65 to 70?

Bhatt: All key persons of Baroda.

TEHELKA: From different saffron organisations?

Bhatt: In Ahmedabad, there were two persons… I won’t tell you the place… that is secret… it is the Parivar’s… In Ahmedabad, the party has a farmhouse… we started… supplying everything… made a plan… If the police makes arrests, then [we were to secure] the release [of those in custody]. That night, we sat up and made a panel of advocates… If Hindus were injured, then how to take them to hospitals… how we were to help… We made the whole plan… to start a Hindu jehad… we were successful in Gujarat… We were thinking what should we do… so we got three-foot long iron rods… iron bars, and if the cadre was from the Bajrang Dal, then trishuls… In other words, we made a plan and supplied the samaan [weapons]… it was very necessary… After we supplied the samaan, the Hindus got very motivated… Until Godhra happened, the upper castes would never come out… Baniyas… Patels… they would never come out… But we mobilised them… told them that we had prepared teams from the police and amongst advocates… that if they went to jail, we would get them released…



Conspirators & Rioters

‘It Should Be Something History Has Never Seen’

Transcript: DEEPAK SHAH

A senior Vadodara BJP leader reveals how ‘revenge’ was planned the very day of the Sabarmati Express incident

MAY 20, 2007

TEHELKA: What time did you reach Baroda [from Godhra]?…

Deepak Shah:We got there at about three, four o clock…

TEHELKA: After admitting the injured to hospital …

Shah:We had gone with a big ambulance… went straight to the hospital… got them admitted… Then we met the Godhra MP, Gopal Singh … met the train collector also… The directives were clearly given to the police… to the MP also … the directives were very clear… that no Hindu is to be arrested now… catch all the Muslims… don’t talk to us about balance… “balance” is something we’ll do later… Just take the force now and teach them a lesson…

TEHELKA: In Godhra?

Shah:We went to a lot of places… Everybody’s views were zabardast [fierce]... Jaideepbhai from the VHP was also there… All our workers had gathered on
the road… there was tremendous fury… They seemed to have made up their minds then itself that this time they were not going to spare the Muslims… When we reached Baroda too, it was a curfew-like situation because everyone had come to know through the media of the terrible incident that had happened… The anger was so spontaneous… that even on the way, wherever there was a Muslim shop or house, it was burnt …

TEHELKA: How was it all organised…

Shah: For the next two days in Baroda, everyone just targeted… whoever they could… as many as possible… even in remote areas like Manzarpur... Areas like Alkapuri and Gotri have never even seen stonepelting... such areas which have no history whatsoever of riots… in those areas, people selectively targeted all the Muslim shops and burnt them …

TEHELKA:Were you at the meeting held in Baroda that night?

Shah: Yes… I went for that meeting too… The general sentiment was that if we did not retaliate even after such a big incident and if we just backed down quietly, then they would be encouraged to spread terror… They can do anything… First we gave a bandh call…

TEHELKA: Only VHP people attended the meeting….

Shah: No, no, everybody was there…There were people from the Sangh Parivar… from the Sangathan… the Mandal … you know, people who participate in any big event organized by the VHP… All the youth wings were also invited…

TEHELKA: Fifty to sixty people were there in the meeting …

Shah: The number was higher… around 100–150

TEHELKA: Like in Ahmedabad, where the meeting was held at some guesthouse…

Shah: Yes, it was held here at the Narmada guest house …

TEHELKA: Dhimantbhai was telling me about the strategy… about constituting a team of lawyers …

Shah: Correct… because the police will conduct an inquiry… So [we had to think of] what we would do to protect our people…

TEHELKA: So who were there in the legal team?

Shah: Sanjaybhai Joshi was there… Neeraj Jain was there...

TEHELKA: Rajendra Trivedi was there?

Shah: Rajendra Trivedi was there… Pankaj Chabar …Tushar Vyas…

TEHELKA: Who was used in the attack?

Shah: There are warring communities… the Kharvas… the Baakris… They always come forward at such times… They are meat-eating people … they have the tools and they usually lead from the front… So they were channelised … There were Kahars… A lot of Rabaris were there this time… Bhadris, Parmars and
Marathi-speaking people, who have a lot of passion…

TEHELKA: Dhimantbhai was telling me that a peace committee was formed just to mislead everyone, and that committee moulded rods and pipes and distributed them…

Shah: Whatever was needed was given… After all, it was a battle for faith…

TEHELKA TRANSCRIPTS (EXCERPTS)

CONSPIRACY BEFORE FEBRUARY 27 2002

BEFORE GODHRA TRAGEDY (distribution of arms and bombs)

The Bomb Makers

Overview

HARESH BHATT, who was the Bajrang Dal rashtriya sah sanyojak in 2002 and is now the BJP MLA from Godhra, till the riots a Congress stronghold, made a never-before admission that bombs were made at a firecracker factory he owned. He describes how they assembled country-made explosives, including rocket launchers. These were then distributed to murderous mobs in Ahmedabad

IN 2002, despite curfew in Ahmedabad, swords were brought in from Punjab and country pistols from UP, Bihar and MP. Bhatt boasts that none of these states were under BJP rule then. The consignment of arms crossed the borders not once but many times. “There were tens and tens of them,” Bhatt reveals

IN AN UNRELATED but crucial disclosure, Bhatt says that he trained 40 young men who then went on to demolish the Babri Masjid in December 1992. He trained them like the army does, and ran obstacle courses for them and taught them how to climb a 30-ft rope. The camp still exists in Ahmedabad

DHAWAL JAYANTI PATEL of the VHP used dynamite in his quarries in Sabarkantha. With the help of an old RSS hand, Amrudh Patel, who was an expert in handling explosives, bombs were made in the quarries using dynamite and RDX-based powder

ANIL PATEL, the VHP Vibhag pramukh, talks of how explosives were made in Sabarkantha and then supplied to Ahmedabad

Conspirators & Rioters

‘The Smallest Village Wasn’t Spared’

Transcript: ANIL PATEL

VHP leader Anil Patel says even Congress workers joined in the attacks, and that senior police officers were very helpful

JUNE 13, 2007

Anil Patel: You ask me questions and I will answer…

TEHELKA: I don’t know much about this area…

Patel: Let me tell you about this district, Sabarkantha. The maximum number of FIRs were filed here, after Godhra. I know because I handled all the cases on behalf of the VHP. There were 40 murders, 60 murders here…

TEHELKA: In Dhansura alone?

Patel: No, in Sabarkantha. All of Sabarkantha. As for setting villages ablaze, even the smallest one was not spared… Not even one Muslim home was spared in the entire district. At nine in the morning on February 27, I got to know that the train had been burnt but when I saw it on TV, I realised it was a big incident and that there would be a big reaction… Then a message came from the state office saying that the next day a bandh would be observed… Then I met a friend who asked me how we would respond

TEHELKA:Was he a Muslim?

Patel: No, he’s Hindu… I told him that the entire world would watch what we would do the next day. At 10 that night, I received a call from the [VHP] office asking me to identify the bodies of the 16 karsevaks who belonged to my district. I was asked to inform their families and arrange for the bodies to be taken to their homes. The first reaction to Godhra happened from my district, from village Badgaon near Dhansura. The stabbing that happened at Baroda railway station… that was carried out by a worker from Badgaon. Then there was a stabbing at Anand station — that was also done by one of our cadres with a trishul. And when our activists returned, they took an oath at the main square that the next day itself, they would give a befitting reply.

TEHELKA:Were only the Parishad workers present?

Patel: No, the entire Hindu community had got together. Even the Congress joined us. The BJP was also there. Some Congress supporters — every village has four or five — were not with us and were busy trying to protect the Muslims. There was an MLA, Haribhai Patel — he has expired since — who tried to protect the Muslims. There was another guy, Jagrobhai Mistri, a very rich man, who was also trying to save the Muslims…

TEHELKA: How were the activists motivated?

Patel: The incident was being repeated on TV. The killing of the karsevaks was being played and replayed [throughout the day]. All of us, including the Congressmen felt that we [Hindus] had been attacked. They did everything alongside us, even triggered the bomb to demolish the mosque …

TEHELKA: A masjid was demolished in Dhansura

Patel: One maulvi was killed. The mosque was destroyed. There was only one mosque here.

TEHELKA: The maulvi was burnt…

Patel: Hmm...

TEHELKA:Was he burnt alive?

Patel: No, they took him away… [makes a gesture of beheading someone]

TEHELKA: With a sword…

Patel: No, with an axe… After I visited the hospital [where the karsevaks’ bodies had been kept] and returned at four in the morning, I had decided that if there were no reaction that day, then I would leave the VHP.

TEHELKA: Yes… it had become a question of prestige…

Patel: I would not work unless 500 Muslims were killed… After everything was over, I thought to myself that others too had thought like me… At that time, I decided that the responsibility of hitting back was ours. They burnt our sisters and brothers, they too would be burnt alive…

TEHELKA: Children too?

Patel: Lock them indoors and just set them on fire… Kill the entire family. We’ll take care of whatever happens after that… Bolt the doors so no one can escape. I said, we will take responsibility for whatever happens afterwards…

TEHELKA: So houses were burnt here in Dhansura…

Patel: Many… there were 126 properties in Dhansura… they were all destroyed. In the entire district, there was only one village where 75 percent Muslims didn’t return…

TEHELKA: Didn’t return…
• • •
TEHELKA: In Ahmedabad, bombs were made in Hareshbhai’s own factory. How did it work here?

Patel: There are a lot of boring industries here, because of which dynamite is available… Then, we also had some experts. They made [explosives] and supplied them to Ahmedabad as well…

TEHELKA: Ahmedabad?
Patel:We supplied from here also
• • •

Patel: I was very tired… mental tension… there were so many phone calls coming. At about 1, I got a call saying that about 2,500 people had gathered at Bayad road…

TEHELKA: Bayad road?

Patel: So I went to Bayad and told them that our people had been burnt to death and they were now to do whatever they wanted. Go to the villages and kill. After that, 30 incidents happened. From Bayad, I came to Dhansura and Dhansura was also up in flames. The arson was initiated by our workers but gradually everyone joined in… Some were opposed. Like Congress guys Praful… Sangram Singh in Modasa… Munnabhai in Sathamba… They tried to save [the Muslims]. The Congress guys tried to protest, but the majority were with us…

TEHELKA: The majority were with you. Any activists who were in the forefront?

Patel: The activists did everything... They killed, they hacked …

TEHELKA: Did [DSP] Solanki lend full support…

Patel: [mumbles a name]

TEHELKA: Who?

Patel: Someone called Mansoori, who was a SIMI sympathiser…

TEHELKA: SIMI is a terrorist organisation….

Patel: He [Mansoori] was a vegetable vendor. He was hacked to death… At night, I got a call from Arvindbhai Soni, our co-minister, saying this incident has happened. I asked him if he was at the spot and he said no, but some Bajrang Dal brothers were there. I told him to stay at some safe place and to be cautious. The next morning I got to know that Arvindbhai had been arrested… I went to Biloda and called the DSP [District Superintendent of Police] … Both Jayantibhai and I went to meet the DSP and he said he’d release Arvindbhai... Everything was there on paper, in the arrest report, but when Arvindbhai was to be transferred to judicial custody, he was told to go back to the [VHP] office...

TEHELKA: Go to the office…

Patel: He stayed in the office for a month and a half…
• • •
TEHELKA: The main contribution was the VHP’s and the Bajrang Dal’s…

Patel: I and the Sangh did a lot… the Sangh did it without being asked… Many Sangh workers also went to jail… There is a village nearby called Sathambha… the taluk executive was booked under Section 302 [IPC]… there is still a case against him in Modasa for killing a Muslim woman… There is Amrudhbhai… he also did a lot of good work… he is the taluk executive

TEHELKA: What’s his name?

Patel: Amrudhbhai Prajapati…

TEHELKA: Is he still in jail?…

Patel: He is out on bail now…

TEHELKA: He is from the Sangh?

Patel: He is VHP President, district Modasa. Another man, Ashokbhai Patel, he also went to jail…

TEHELKA: He is also from the VHP…

Patel: Yes, from the VHP... A lot of people tried their best to get me booked too, but ND Solanki, Arvindbhai Brahmbhat and Pravinbhai Togadia and the caution I exercised [saved me]… Later on, I looked after everybody in jail and organised their food and looked after their cases…

• • •

Patel: Strategy… there was no strategy as such… The main thing was to give a befitting retaliation, to harm as many Muslims as possible, in whatever manner… by burning them, killing them… Educated activists knew what was to be done… but the public felt that even breaking a door meant furthering the cause of Hindutva…

TEHELKA: Muslims were killed in Dhansura…

Patel: The maulvi was killed…

TEHELKA: You were in-charge of the entire district?

Patel: I was looking after three four taluks… Dhansura, Bayad, Meghraj, Maalpur, Modasa…

TEHELKA: How many Muslims were killed in these taluks?

Patel: More than 30...

TEHELKA: Some are missing as well…

Patel: In Bayad, they are missing … 60 drivers from Modasa never came back…

TEHELKA: Truck drivers…

Patel: From Mumbai…
• • •
Patel: Our Pravinbhai Togadia… did it at the district level…

TEHELKA: Did you speak to him?

Patel: Yes...

TEHELKA: Then during the riots…

Patel: Be careful with whatever you do. He told me about the cases also… that the main workers should not be jailed… because it would affect the morale of the workers… that it’s okay if the goonda elements were booked because we would be able to bail them out… But our main workers were not to get booked… this is what he told me… They were booked, though. Amrudhbhai got [Section] 302… The Modasa district president was also charged… It’s like this… I felt that several people went to jail even after the events…
• • •
Patel: Modasa was one village in which the Muslims had the upper hand over Hindus... They had attacked one of our Bajrang Dal associates… Later some 60-70 Muslim shops were burnt… But after Godhra, we stayed on top of them…







RAMESH DAVE VHP MAN

Conspirators & Rioters

‘I Got A Call Saying, What’s This? All Of Gujarat Is Sleeping?

Transcript: RAMESH DAVE

Spurred on by Modi’s statement in Godhra, Dave and other VHP men set about picking out targets and killing them one by one

JUNE 12, 2007

Dave: Whatever happened [at Godhra], happened for the best… And, in any case, Rajendrabhai [Vyas] was in charge of the Godhra case…

TEHELKA: He was the incharge of the train…yes…

Dave: I was with him too as the deputy incharge…

TEHELKA: Were you on the train? Dave: No, I didn’t go… I am a diabetic and so I stayed back… Then around 9.30, I got a call from there, informing me of what had happened…

TEHELKA: Rajendrabhai called you up?

Dave: Rajendrabhai called up… he asked me what now… I said don’t worry… I will reach Godhra by 12 o’clock… Then he said there was no need to come to Godhra… some other people were already on their way… but the situation was out of control there and it had to be handled… I told him not to worry… and then he started crying… Rajendrabhai… he said 60 of our people had died… that we were playing a one-day…

TEHELKA: He told me that too…

Dave: One day khelna hai… 600 ko… maine bola koi tension mat lo, bhagwan ki kripa hai, ho jayega jo bhi hone wala hai… phir yahan laashein wagairah laayi… Phir main bhi raat ko gaya… drishya dekh kar bada… [We have to play a one-day… 600 have to be… I told him not to worry, whatever has to be done will be done by God’s grace… later on, the dead were brought here… I also went there that night… the scene was…

TEHELKA: I saw the pictures… in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad office…

Dave: In the office… We went to the office at night… the atmosphere there was very disturbing… everybody had the same reaction… what all of them felt was that [we had taken it] for so many years… Narendrabhai gave us great support at that time…

TEHELKA: What was Narendra Modi’s reaction when he reached Godhra and when he returned?

Dave: In Godhra, he gave a very strong statement… He himself was in a rage… after all, he has been a swayamsevak with the Sangh right from childhood…his anger was such… he himself did not come out into the open then but the police and all had turned totally ineffective at that time… The next day, we took out a funeral procession for the dead at 10.30… from the VHP office… these are things that have never been told… What actually happened was that I got a call at around quarter to eleven saying Rameshbhai what is this… all of Gujarat is sleeping… what is to be done… doesn’t matter… you will get a reaction from my side right now… At quarter to eleven, we went to a spot there… There a shootout took place… from there the whole of Gujarat caught on… but the spot [where it started] was Dariyapur…

• • •

Dave: This is Kandhariapur… Hindus are gradually decreasing here… Muslims are more in number…

TEHELKA: They are increasing…

Dave: This is our border… All the area behind this house is his [Abdul Latif ’s]… At the time of the Godhra massacre, rioting started here at around 11 o’clock… We fought here till the next 11 o’clock…

TEHELKA: Was there firing from their side too?

Dave: They did not… This time, everyone was on the Hindus’ side… At that time, I was given charge of Madhopura… It is very nearby… there were almost 123 riot-related cases there… Of these, around 15 were under Section 302… you understand this… What happened was, we targeted and killed all those who had been in our sights for the past 20-25 years…

• • •

Dave: We showed the horrific video we had shot [at Godhra] to people… What happens is… there’s a certain fury… A dormant volcano erupted all of a sudden… Those people did suffer a lot of damage… Our plan was to burn Godhra down to the ground… to burn all these Musalman-wusalmans… but then, to get everyone together here… to handle the situation…

TEHELKA: And all the VVIPs had also started visiting by then… Was there retaliation in Kalupur?

Dave: Yes we took revenge… to a great extent… meaning zabardast.

TEHELKA: How many were killed?

Dave: Now approximately, here in the interiors, I’d say only around 60-70… But the kind of revenge there was… What these people did in Kalupur and Dariyapur… they have three areas… four areas… Juhapura, Shahpur, Dariyapur and Kalupur… What they would do is they’d riot all over the place, and then they would sneak back here to hide…

• • •

TEHELKA: I had such an open conversation that Hareshbhai told me… Hareshbhai Bhatt’s factory… how bombs were made in his cracker factory…

Dave: Yes they were made… here then… If we weren’t here, we would be outside… Ghanshyam Patel used to call up people and control everything...

TEHELKA: So when the riots started in Dariyapur and Kalupur, did you people have any weapons or not?

Dave: Some had already come…

TEHELKA: But Hindus don’t keep weapons…

Dave: They don’t have weapons, but our brother got us revolvers and that’s how we would get by… and this is not the age of swords, anyway… So that is all one wants for weapons…

TEHELKA: So how many did he get? Two or three… the stand wala?

Dave: No, they were about 8 or 10

• • •

TEHELKA: Can I meet our activists [from the Sangh] who had been jailed but are now released? Just one or two?

Dave: There was one by the name of Yogi… Have you met Harshadbhai… Harshadbhai Giletwala?

TEHELKA: Not yet, Rajendrabhai gave me his name a while ago… but I haven’t met him yet…

Dave: He got burnt in that case… while setting that hotel on fire… He had 75 percent burns…

TEHELKA: Which hotel? Best Bakery is in Baroda…

Dave: No, no, it’s this one…

Dave’s wife: It was a Muslim hotel…

TEHELKA: Was it in Kalupur?

Dave: No no… it is on that side, near Narayan Pura…

TEHELKA: Were some Muslims also killed?

Dave: One died…

TEHELKA: So Harshadbhai sustained 75 percent burns… Dave: If you meet him now, he looks just the same… He sustained 75 percent injuries… it wasn’t easy saving him… the mrityunjay was chanted one lakh twenty five thousand times… Rs 4-5 lakh were also spent…

TEHELKA: Can I meet someone other than him… Can I meet the person who runs the stand?

Dave: No, he is out of town somewhere… And he won’t talk about it all now… Actually… like he told me, in his business, he has to deal with both Hindus and Muslims…

TEHELKA: Was an FIR lodged against him?

Dave: It was lodged before the riots… It was in a case of the murder of a Muslim, in which he was arrested…


• • •

TEHELKA: Did the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have any meeting the day Godhra happened? Was any strategy planned? Some common strategy must have been made by you people?

Dave: No, it happened but… At that time, the atmosphere was also very volatile… It could have been used for the sangathan… the sangathan has grown because of that… there was a time when…

TEHELKA: No, like the Godhra massacre happened on the 27th… did our leaders, who were there in Ahmedabad that day, get in touch with each other and plan out some strategy?

Dave: It happened…

TEHELKA: Or was it that they couldn’t meet because of the curfew…

Dave: No even if curfew is imposed nowadays, we can go out… There are lanes that let you do that… and even if there aren’t any such, we set out on the roads themselves. Meetings did happen… eight to ten meetings at various places… The strategy was that since we had to take revenge, we should show them at one go and then there would be peace for the next ten or so years…