Monday, March 24, 2014



http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gujarat-riots-2002-godhra-sudden-spontaneous-backlash-frantic-police-warnings-ignored/1/262413.html
Exclusive: Headlines Today probe reveals Gujarat riots were not spontaneous and sudden
Ashish Khetan   |   Headlines Today  |   Gandhinagar, April 15, 2013 | UPDATED 09:49 IST

(Culpable: Home Minister Modi, then commissioner of police PC Pande, present commissioner of Police, Shivanand Jha jurisdictionally in charge of Sola Civil Hospital area). Why did they allow Mobs to assemble at 3 a.m. on 28.2.2002, why did they give Police Escort to Giriraj Kishore who made inflammatory speeches, why did they allow Rowdy and Crowded Funeral processions that took FOUR hours to reach the Crematorium? While Naroda Patiya was being Attacked and the Massacre at Gulberg being allowed!!

Good Governance??!!

In the past 10 years, the Gujarat government and senior BJP leaders have often said that the riots that broke out in the state in February 2012 were an 'instantaneous reaction' to the carnage at Godhra. The chief minister himself in an interview on March 1, 2002 had said, "What we are witnessing in Gujarat at this time is a chain of action and reaction. We want that there neither be action nor reaction."
But now Headlines Today has uncovered the police control room messages and the state intelligence bureau reports which show that the police had received a constant stream of inputs from its field officers about VHP leaders making provocative speeches, about crowds being mobilised and warnings about the possibility of major riots breaking out. Despite the flurry of ground reports and advance warnings, no curfew was imposed in Ahmedabad till noon the next day. The BJP government supported the VHP called bandhs that, as events turned out, proved to be the pretext under which violent mobs were mobilized. VHP leaders were not warned or put under preventive detention.
But the most intriguing aspect of these messages is that while they have been produced before the court as annexures, they don't find any mention in the 541 page closure report filed by the SIT. No attempt has been made by the SIT to reconstruct the sequence of events as they unfolded immediately after the news of Sabarmati train incident broke. The SIT did not assess the adequacy or appropriateness of the state's response in a chronological fashion as the law and order collapsed in large parts of the state.  
Perhaps, that's the reason that the facts that emerge from these messages are hard to reconcile with the conclusions drawn by the SIT.  
There were two centralised police control rooms in Ahmedabad in 2002 - Ahmedabad Police Control Room situated at Shahibaug in the heart of the city.  Naroda and Gulberg Society, where around 150 people were burnt to death on the 28th of February lay within a radius of 6 KMs from this Police Control Room 9Gulber was 2 to 3 kms from the control room while Naroda was roughly six kilometers).
The second one -- the State Police Control Room -- located at Police Bhawan in Gandhinagar.
The Ahmedabad Police Control Room received messages of the build up taking place in Ahmedabad City. The State Control Room got messages from different districts in the state.
In February 2012 the SIT submitted before an Ahmedabad court, in a sealed cover, only the Ahmedabad City PCR messages... a copy of these are now with Headlines Today. The State Control Room messages are still missing.
There was also a third control room...this was at the State Intelligence Bureau Headquarters situated inside Police Bhawan, Gandhinagar...the  same building where the State DGP's office is located. The SIB Control Room was also flooded with field intelligence reports filed by its intelligence units located across the State including Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. These SIB reports too have been submitted before the Court by the SIT. A copy of these too is now in the possession of Headlines Today.
By the afternoon of February 27, the Gujarat home department was being bombarded with messages from cops on the ground about mobilisation of VHP and Bajrang Dal cadre.
Rightwing activists across the state were holding public meetings, making provocative speeches and inciting mobs. All this is documented in hundreds of wireless messages sent by policemen to the state intelligence bureau. But the State failed to take any effective steps to prevent the imminent massacres. Within a few hours after the Godhra tragedy, the three senior-most office bearers of Gujarat's VHP unit -Jaideep Patel, Dilep Trivedi and Kaushik Patel-- issued a statement declaring a state wide bandh and containing remarks that were designed to incite the mobs.
A field level officer faxed this statement to SIB headquarters at 20:38 hours on the 27 Feb 2002.
February 27, 2002
Time: 8:38 pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message No: Page No. 188 (Annexure III, File XVIII)
VHP general secreatary Dilip Trivedi & VHP joint secretaries Jaideep Patel & Kaushik Mehta issue a statement.
VHP declares Gujarat bandh to protest killing of kar sevaks.
Statement says Muslims pre-planned Godhra attack.
Innocent ladies were molested and compartments were set on fire and Ramsevaks were burnt alive.
Through out the day on 27th February the SIB control room received messages of provocative sloganeering and mobilisation by the VHP.
February 27, 2002
Time: Not Known
State Intelligence Bureau Message No: Page No. 345, Order No. 24 (Annexure III File XIX)
Sender: D.O, Ahmedabad
Recipient: Intelligence Office, Virangam (Ahmedabad)
75 VHP & Bajrang Dal members gathered at Virangam Town Chali & Golwada area.
Situation in the area very tense.
The PCR messages warned about the tension that was spreading from the moment sabarmati express (the same train that was attacked by Muslim mobs at Godhra and later after detaching the burnt bogies made its way to Ahmedabad) arrived at Ahmedabad station.
February 27, 2002
Time: 6:10 pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message: No. 531 Page No. 19 (Annexure III, File XVIII (D-160)
Sabarmati Express arrived at Ahmedabad station from Godhra at 4:30 pm.
Karsevaks armed with rods & sticks, shouting slogans 'khoon ka badla khoon'.
At 10:12 pm, Police Inspector of CID, Intelligence in Bhavnagar sent a fax to Inspector General, Gujarat State Intelligence Bureau in Gandhi Nagar saying that Sadhu Samaj president Gopal Nand and local VHP leaders exhorted crowds at Junagadh to retaliate. The message said that the VHP leaders delivered hate speeches and called on all Hindus to unite.
February 27, 2002
Time: 10:12 pm
State Intelligence Bureau Fax Message: 311/02 Page No.: D-1/ HA/Jaher Sabha/Junagadh
Sender: CID, Bhavnagar
Recipient: IG, Gujarat & Intelligence Bureau, Gandhi Nagar
Sadhu Samaj president Gopal Nand gave provocative speech at Junagadh Kadva Chowk between 7:30 pm-9 pm.
Gopal Nand questioned lack of response from Hindus even 12 hours after burning of train.
Gopal Nand questioned Muslim patriotism to India and incited mobs to attack them.
By the afternoon of the 27th, the riots had begun.
February 27, 2002
Time 17:45
State Intelligence Bureau Fax Message No 273 File XIX Annexure III
Sender: B M Mohit Anand Centre
Sabarmati Express reached Anand Railway Station at 1500 hrs
Karsevaks from the train stabbed 4 Muslims present at the station.
One victim named Abdul Rashid aged 65 years, resident of Anand, died.
Remaining were hospitalised at Anand government hospital.
Reports of violent attacks by karsevaks came from across the state. A VHP mob was reported as swelling at Vadagam village in Modasa that was to become another epicentre of violence. There were desperate SOS messages seeking reinforcements. Mobs were on rampage through the night, setting ablaze houses and vehicles.
February 27, 2002
Time: 11:59 pm
State Intelligence Bureau Fax Message: Com/HM/550/ Out No. 398
Sender: ACP, Gandhinagar Region
Recipient: IG, Gujarat & Intelligence Bureau, Gandhi Nagar
50 kar sevaks on special bus from Ahmedabad reached Modasa, Vadagam village at 6:30 pm.
500-strong mob received kar sevaks.
Karsevaks told mobs about attack on Sabarmati Express.
Crowds swelled to thousands by 9:30 pm.
Police presence insufficient to maintain order.
10 shops owned by Muslims & several vehicles set ablaze by mobs.
Despite these warnings there was no clampdown by the Gujarat government on the mobilisation being carried out by the VHP leadership and neither were VHP and Bajrang Dal members taken under preventive detention.
The Speical Investigation Team in its report accepted that the Modi government supported the bandh called by the VHP.
Page 134 of SIT closure report: "Shri Vijay Badheka, Under Secretary to Home Department has stated before the SIT that both Gujarat bandh on 28.02.02 and Bharat bandh on 01.03.02 were supported by the BJP."
The bandh allowed the VHP cadre a free run even as the SIB kept sending signals of impending riots and sought preventive action.
February 28, 2002
Time: 9am-10am
State Intelligence Bureau Message No: 73/02 Page 365 (Annexure III File XXI (D-166)
Sender: ACP (Intelligence) Surat

VHP, BJP leaders gave provocative speeches at Sardar Chowk, Vapi Town.
VHP's Dinesh Behri, Bajrang Dal's Acharya Brahmbatt, BJP's Jawahar Desai & RSS member Vinod Chowdhary present Speakers exhorted crowds to take revenge for Godhra.
When the Ahmedabad police commissioner P.C. Pande and State DGP K. Chakravarty were questioned by the SIT, they were not confronted with these specific SIB reports. P.C. Pande was not asked why curfew was not imposed in Ahmedabad city on the 27th afternoon itself, particularly in the face of such specific intelligence inputs.
Pande told SIT on page 7 of his statement recorded on 24.03.2010: "The circumstances did not exist on the 27.02.02 or even on 28.02.02 to warrant the imposition of curfew and any hasty decision would have led to panic in the city. Even otherwise with limited forces available imposition of curfew becomes a serious problem and large scale breach becomes common."
Pande and Chakravarty were also not asked why VHP and Bajrang Dal leaders were not put under preventive arrest even as they were threatening violence.
But the SIT has not explained what these specific measures were. General and vague claims made by Gujarat State Officials that all possible efforts were made to control the riots have been accepted by the SIT.
The State Intelligence Bureau repeatedly pressed the panic button, sending SOS' to the home department about the possibility of riots. Bodies of kar sevaks in public display and funeral processions by mobs…proved to be the trigger. But records show the VHP and its cadres succeeded in stoking mass hysteria.
30 minutes past midnight on the 28th of February 2002, the state intelligence bureau received a fax giving a specific warning about possibility of riots with bodies being brought to Ahmedabad. Then VHP state unit president Jaideep Patel was already on his way escorting the 54 bodies from Godhra to Ahmedabad.
February 28, 2002
Time: 12:30 am
State Intelligence Bureau Fax No. 525
Bodies will be brought to Kalupur Railway station, Ahmedabad.
Dead bodies will be carried in funeral processions VHP gave a bandh call.
High possibility of riots in Ahmedabad. Take preventive action.
February 28, 2002.
Time: Not Known
State Intelligence Bureau report to Home Secretary and all Police Commissioner, all SPs
VHP has given a call for "Gujarat Bandh".

Appropriate vigilance be exercised.

The motorcade carrying bodies finally reached Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad at 3:34 AM. By then there was a already a mob made up of VHP and RSS members outside Sola Hospital.
The PCR Van positioned at Sola Civil Hospital sent a message to City Police Control Room situated at Shaibaug. The distance between Hospital and Control Room was 11 kilometres.
February 28, 2002
Time: 4:00 am
Page No. 5790 (Annexure IV, File XIV)

Mob of 3000 RSS members gathered at Sola Hospital.
February 28, 2002
Time: 7:14 am
PCR wireless message (Sola Hospital)
Page No. 5796 (Annexure IV, File XIV)
Mob assembled at Sola Hospital.
The crowds were getting restless. Soon violence sparked off.
February 28, 2002
Time: 7:17 am
PCR wireless message (Sola Hospital)
Page No. 5797 (Annexure IV, File XIV)
Mob of 500 people holding up traffic.
At 8:10 there is a message from the Control Room saying that 3 SRP Companies have been sent to Sola Hospital for extra bandobast.
February 28, 2002
Time: 11:55 am
PCR wireless message: Page No 5894(Annexure IV, File XIV)
Mob set vehicle on fire, arson on highway.
February 28, 2002
Time: 11.55 am
PCR message
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No.6162 (Annexure IV File XV)
Riots have started at Sola Hospital & near High Court where bodies were brought.
February 28, 2002
Time: Not known

PCR message (Sola Hospital)
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No.?6172
Sola Hospital staff surrounded by 500-strong mob Please provide security at hospital urgently.
These revelations show how mobs were allowed to congregate at the hospital to take out funeral processions. Though violence had erupted, curfew was still not clamped.
Pande claimed in his statement before the SIT that he visited the Hospital at 10 am and found everything to be normal.
"I went to Sola Civil Hosptal around 10:00 and found that doctors were under pressure to complete the documentation wheras relatives were in a hurry to take the bodies. However, I didn't find anything alarming and as such returned around 11:00 am."
Pande also claimed there were no funeral processions, a claim accepted by the SIT. But the PCR messages show that there were not only processions but also riots at the hospital, nailing Pande's lies.
February 28, 2002
Time: 11:58 am
PCR message (Sola Hospital)
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 5907 & 5925(Annexure IV File XIV)
Funeral procession of 10 bodies taken out from Ramol Jantanagar to Hatkeshwar crematorium 6,000 people accompanied procession.
As funeral processions wound through the city, mobs ran amok at Gulbarg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gaam in Ahmedabad.
February 28, 2002
Time: Not known
PCR message (Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha) Com/538
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 258 (Annexure III File XIX)
Funeral procession allowed at Khedbrahma town in Sabarkantha district
Situation tense, 2 Muslims stabbed at Khedbrahma
February 28, 2002
Time: Not known
PCR message (Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha)
State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 262 (Annexure III File XIX)
150 Bajrang Dal members on way to Khedbrahma.
February 28, 2002
Time: 3:32 pm
PCR message (Khedbrahma, Sabarkantha)

State Intelligence Bureau: Page No. 254 (Annexure III file XIX) Com/574

Funeral procession organised for Godhra train victim Babubhai Patel in Sabarkantha.
Special Investigation Team in its closure report on pages 59 to 64 had concluded there were no funeral processions and gave a clean-chit to the Gujarat government on this count.
PCR messages detailing incidence of violence in Ahmedabad clearly warned about a brewing unrest. Rioting was reported from Naroda and Meghani Nagar where Gulberg Society is located. The PCR messages of violence in Ahmedabad are contained in Annexure IV File XIV. Here are some samples of the several wireless messages sent by policemen on the ground.
Page No. 5798, 5803, 5804
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 12:30 am
PCR Message: Factory burnt at Ambikanagar on February 27
Area: Odhav
FIR No.80/02
Page No,: 5746
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 1:10 am
PCR Message: Between 2:30-3:00 pm on Feb 27, mob stoned bus, vandalized shop
Area: Bapunagar
FIR No.: 64/02
Page No.: 5768
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 2:38 am
PCR Message: Mob torched buses & rickshaws, damaged public property on Feb 27 at 5:15 pm
Area: Odhav
FIR No.:78/02
Page No.: 341, Order No. 534
Date: February 27, 2002
Time: 8:25pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Man succumbs to stab injuries on February 27 at 8:25 pm
Area: Meghani Nagar
FIR No.: 65/02
Page No.: 341, Order No. 534
Date: February 27, 2002
Time: Not Known
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Man succumbs to injuries on Feb 27 at 7:45 pm at Saralaben Hospital.
Area: Meghani Nagar
FIR No.: 65/02
Page No.: 347, Order No. 8535
Date: February 27, 2002
Time: 8:30 pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Man critically injured after attack at Ahmedabad railway station at 5 pm.
Area: Ahmedabad
FIR No: Not Known
Page No: 348, Order 541
Date: February 27, 2002
Time: 9:30pm
State Intelligence Bureau Message: Juhapura resident attacked at V.F Hospital.
Area: Ahmedabad
FIR No: 116
Page No.: 5807 & 5808
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 4:28 am
PCR Message: One critically injured near Kathwada Road, Naroda, on February 27 at 7:30 pm.
Area: Naroda
FIR No.: 97/02
Page No.: 5805 & 5806
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 4:20 am
State Intelligence Bureau Message: One critically injured near Law Garden on February 27 at 8:15 pm.
Area: Ellisbridge
FIR No: 116/02
Page No.: 5801
Date: February 28, 2002
Time: 3:50 am
State Intelligence Bureau Message: One critically injured in mob attack near Mahalaxmi Crossroad, Paldi on Feb 27 at 8:30 pm.
Area: Ellisbridge
FIR No.: 114/02
Inspite of all of this, the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner told the SIT that he didn't find the "circumstances on the 27th and 28th fit for curfew."
PCR and SIB reports show that there were regular inputs of VHP and Bajrang Dal led mobs swelling at Naroda and Gulberg Society.
Pande admitted before the SIT that at both these places curfew was declared only after 12:50 pm ...by then the mob had already swelled to between 10 and 15 thousand people in number. It is no wonder that the curfew that was finally imposed remained only on paper - it had no effect on the ground.
Hundred and fifty men, women and children were burnt and hacked to death at Naroda and Gulberg society in the four hours between 2 and 6 PM on February 28.
Police Headquarters at Shahibaug was only 2 to 3 kilometers from Gulberg Society and around 6 kilometers from Naroda Patiya.
Pande admitted before the SIT that through out the day he didn't move out of his office and visited Naroda Patiya and Gulberg only late in the evening...by that time the massacre was over and done with.   
SIB messages show that there were three alerts about the impending massacre at Gulberg.
Date: 28.02.02
Time: 12:15
Sender: Police Inspector CJ Bharwad To: State SIB Control Room
Muslims reside in Gulberg Society.
Mob is surrounding the place.

Strict watch should be kept there.
Date: 28.02.02
Time: 14:50
Sender: Police Inspector CJ Bharwad To: State SIB Control Room
Mob of 3000 rioters has surrounded Gulberg Society, take immediate action.
Date: 28.02.02
Time: 17:00
Sender: Police Inspector CJ Bharwad To: State SIB Control Room
Mob attacked the society from all sides Ehsan Jaffri and women and children burnt alive.
Houses are ablaze. Mob is looting from homes.
In his defence Pande said in his statement: "On 28.2.2002 requests were received from different police stations seeking additional force and SRP and whatever forces were available with me the same were dispatched. However, I found that no feedback had been received by any one of them. This led me to presumption that additional forces reached in time and they were able to control the situation."
SIT accepted Pande's defence and gave him and the Gujarat Administration a clean chit.
The state government told the SIT that the 2002 riots were a spontaneous reaction to the Godhra tragedy, but documentary evidence tells a different story.
Eleven years after the after the horrific incidents as Narendra Modi aspires for the prime minister's chair, Headlines Today has tried to throw fresh light on why his ascension remains so contentious.


Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gujarat-riots-2002-godhra-sudden-spontaneous-backlash-frantic-police-warnings-ignored/1/262413.html

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Friday, March 21, 2014

Minority Mantra (Gujarat) (Written in 2013)



Minority Mantra
Teesta Setalvad

It is the voter that is the ultimate arbiter and it will be the politically shrewd and savvy north-Indian voter of Uttar and Bihar Pradesh that will unequivocally decide the nation’s future in 2014. Unlike the two party options available in western India, the north has, post the BJP-driven bloody politics of the 1990s carved itself viable options that allow discontent to be channelized elsewhere. One divide or laxman rekha that seems non-negotiable is the secular-communal divide, never mind the BJP’s Goebellian talent for anointing a lies, several times spoken, as their version of the truth.

Five thousand caps and burqas we are reliably informed went waste as none, or very few Muslims turned up for Modi darshan last Saturday. Kanpur where the rally was held has eight lakh Muslim votes. The BJP desperate and wily, in playing its double-games cannot escape the harsh questions that internet, television etc make difficult:- questions like
BJP and VHp what’s the rishta?
Ram Mandir yes or no? But Mandir apart what do Shah or Modi or Rajnath Singh or Jaitley have to say about the demolition of the Babri Masjid, an iiilegal and criminal act under Indian Law? Any answers? What about the party’s defiance pf its own assurance to the Supreme Court?
In short does the BJP believe in the rule of law and the writ of the Constitution?

To win minority hearts and minds, a pamphlet is doing the rounds in UP that attempts to paint more Goebellian lies about Muslim safety, Muslim development and Muslim growth (not population!!) in Gujarat.

As a counter, here are some interesting facts:-

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) assessing the goals for poverty reduction in India among different sections of the population (February 2013) has analysed that the poverty head count for Muslims is  “very high in states of Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat”. In these states, nearly 50 per cent of agricultural labourers and 40 per cent of other labourers are below the poverty line in rural areas where households with primary level and lower education have the higher poverty ratio.” This certainly does not absolve other parties especially the Congress, Communists but it does not show the BJP or Modi up well either.

More specifically, there are recent studies that are interesting.  Comparing the literacy rate of Gujarat’s Muslims which is at 73.5 per cent to Andhra Pradesh where it was 68 per cent, Kancha Iliah attributes to the fact that in Gujarat, Muslims study in Gujarati whereas in AP, education is divided into two languages. Telugu and Urdu. Hence while the basic literary level of Muslims was slightly better overall, in terms of each level of education Muslims in AP were doing much better. Up to primary school, in terms of school attendance, the community in both states were at the same level – 74.9 per cent in Gujarat and 74.7 per cent in AP. Those Muslims who made it to middle school in Gujarat constituted 45.3 per cent whereas in AP it was 52.6 per cent. Worse, as they move upto matriculation, only 26.1 per cent of the Gujarati Muslim population passed Std X whereas in AP, 40.6 per cent succeeded. The drop out rate in Gujarat was higher but most surprising was the fact that barely 5 per cent of Gujarat’s Muslims completed graduation whereas in AP the figure was higher at 9.6 per cent.

Gujarat surprisingly given other economic growth indicators, emerges as a state with high levels of hunger while at the same time boasting of higher per capita income and consistent income stability. Gujarat’s hunger levels stand side by side with Orissa and Bihar, only Jharkand, Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh having worse levels.

Abu Saleh Sharief evaluating comparative data from the NSSO and NCAER sets right the false propaganda put forward by the BJP related to Muslims, Sachar Committee and Gujarat. Poverty among urban Muslims is eight times i.e.800 per cent  more than high caste Hindus, about 50 per cent more than Hindu OBCs and the SC/Sts. Over 60 per cent of Gujarat’s Muslims live in urban areas and they stand today as the most deprived social group in Gujarat. Rural poverty amongst Gujarat Muslims is 200 per cent more. While Muslims have bank accounts proportionate to the size of the population, the depth of institutionalised bias and prejudice is evident from the figures related to access to bank loans, microcredit. Poor financial inclusion is evident from the fact that of the total, barely 2.6 per cent loans dished out by banks are the beneficiaries Muslims. So much for equality, fair play and a level playing field. Muslims are also much more vulnerable to theft and burglary.

The most successful way to assess security and integration is through the quality of life for one and all, the depth of societal integration, mixed neighbourhoods and classrooms. The schools within urban Gujarat, especially in the majority dominated areas rarely allow admission to a child from this minority. Ghettoised existence has become a reality within large sections of urban Gujarat as the term ‘borders’ is used to define to segregation of neighbourhoods.
Pertinently, let’s ask, how many Muslims are part of Modi’s government, how many Muslim candidates did he field in 2012?  Modi has not a single Muslim Minister; in fact during his 12 year old term in office in Gujarat, he has never trusted a Muslim as a ministerial post. But then how could he? When he has never fielded a single Muslim candidate in the three elections in Gujarat that he has lorded over!!
Though 9.1. per cent Gujaratis are Muslim, they play no part in Modi’s government or state legislature party. It is arguable and debatable how many actually support him and his policies (this col;umn will bring details on this one).
Today, as he desperately runs to keep in the race for 2014, a moot question to him would be, why not a law to prevent targeted communal violence? A law that punctures the culture of impunity for the perpetrators of hatred and violence ?
A law that helps victims and complainants access the law and ensure that the guilty are punished? A law that actually recognises the culpability of public servants and modifies the limiting provision under section 197 of ‘sanction’ that acts as a barrier against prosecuting public servants guilty of criminal acts? (Under the proposed law ‘deemed sanction’ will be given by a judicial authority if s state government does not act; in 2002, Modi as Gujarat’s home minister, despite the recommendations of senior police officers like his own ADGP Intelligence RB Sreekumar and SP Bhavnagar Rahul Sharma, refused to grant sanction for the criminal prosecution of the VHP/RSS pamphlets containing hate speech and the Sandesh newspaper for spreading hatred and venom and violating sections 153a and 153b of the IPC) ?
A law that recognises command responsibility of political, bureaucratic and non-state actors? Will Modi’s BJP support such a law? To ensure that no Muzaffarnagars, no Gujarats, no Bhiwandi’s, no Hashimpuras, no Dellhis (1984) ever happen?
So far he has not let on what he thinks of such a law when violence could be prevented and the guilty readily punished. So far he has said not a word on the violence perpetrated by BJP elected representatives in the four districts of Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat and Meerut. No prizes for guessing at the motives behind Modi’s mysterious silence.

Ends
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The real story behind the corruption charges against activist Teesta Setalvad

Oh for a Free and Fair Media !!!!

http://scroll.in/article/the-real-story-behind-the-corruption-charges-against-activist-teesta-setalvad?id=658902

The real story behind the corruption charges against activist Teesta Setalvad

The Gujarat government wants activist Teesta Setalvad to be interrogated in custody about charges of embezzling donations collected to build a communal violence museum. But the charges against Setalvad seem to be an attempt to intimidate her to withdraw cases she has helped Zakia Jafri to file against Narendra Modi. On Thursday, the Gujarat High Court adjourned the hearing of a case filed by Zakia Jafri, which seeks to have charges framed against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 59 others for their alleged involvement in  the 2002 riots. A lower court had previously dismissed her case challenging the report of a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team stating that there is no prosecutable evidence against Modi.

The case was adjourned because the Gujarat government said it needed time to come up with a response. "We need time to go through the voluminous records of the case," the state prosecutor argued. Jafri's lawyers said the government could be issued a notice and could then be given time to reply, but the court said it would hear the matter again on April 11.

Zakia Jafri is no stranger to waiting. On 28 February 2002, her husband Ehsan Jafri, a Congress politician and former Parliamentarian, was dragged out of his home in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, to be hacked and burned to death. Sixty nine people died in Gulberg Society that day.

The 2002 riots in Gujarat have the distinction of being the only instance of communal violence for which some amount of justice can be said to have been dealt. One hundred and seventeen perpetrators have been convicted, including a serving minister in the Gujarat government. Because of the Supreme Court, some of the most heinous cases during the riots have been reopened for investigation. Yet that hasn't brought justice for all victims of the 2002 violence. Like Jafri, many believe the pogrom in 2002, of which Gulberg Society was only one incident, would not have happened had chief minister Narendra Modi failed to allowed it. If Jafri's legal efforts succeed, the powerful chief minister and the Bharatiya Janata party's candidate for the position of India's prime minister could be brought to trial on up to 15 charges .

So far, the Gujarat government and the BJP have used the SIT report to claim that the chief minister has been given a "clean chit" by the country's criminal justice system. “Nothing will come of the case,” said Harshad Patel, a BJP spokesperson in Ahmedabad told Scroll.in. “The clean chit has come, now the courts will also decide on that.”

The backlash
Zakia Jafri does not speak to the media these days, but the source of her courage and patience is well-known. The source works from an office in Mumbai's Juhu area. To reach the office, one has to walk past guards of the Central Reserve Paramilitary Force. It is a small but furiously organised office. At the heart of this space is activist and former journalist Teesta Setalvad, who is among the founder-trustees of the two organisations that run from here, Sabrang Trust and the Citizens for Justice and Peace.

Citizens for Justice and Peace was set up on 1 April 2002, in the immediate aftermath of the Gujarat riots, to promote communal harmony. It is among the few organisations that provides legal aid to the survivors of the 2002 riots and has been instrumental in obtaining the 117 convictions that have come so far. Its sister organisation, Sabrang Trust, was established after the 1992-'93 communal violence in the city then known as Bombay.

Right now, Setalvad is battling heavy fire from Ahmedabad. In January, the Ahmedabad police registered a First Information Report against Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand for allegedly cheating residents of Gulberg Society of money collected in 2008 by Sabrang Trust and Citizens in for Justice and Peace. The money was collected to convert Gulberg Society into "a museum of resistance". The call for donations explained the idea: "For nearly six years now, more than a hundred thousand survivors of independent India’s state-sponsored carnage in the western Indian state of Gujarat have been denied dignified acknowledgement of, or reparation for, the magnitude of indignity and violence they suffered. With the BJP’s recent electoral victory in the state, the pain and humiliation of the victim survivors has been further exacerbated. A quiet yet dignified and firm resistance to this state callousness and impunity lies at the heart of this idea of resistance."

This FIR was registered in response to a nine-month-old complaint by some former residents of Gulberg Society. The complainants had said they were not being given the money collected in their name, even as they lived in penury. Anand and Setalvad had responded to the complaint in May 2013, clarifying their accounts and the nature of donations raised and for what they had been utilised. The Ahmedabad Police's Crime Branch did nothing about the complaint for nine months, but suddenly registered an FIR days after Setalvad and Zakia Jafri announced their decision to challenge the lower court's order in the Gujarat High Court, asking that charges be framed against chief minister Modi.

The idea of a memorial to victims of communal violence is seven years old now. “We conceived the idea in 2007 when the Supreme Court cases were not moving," Setalvad told Scroll.in. "There was a lot of despair on the part of the survivors. The idea was that we would think of a memorial for all victims of communal violence. So from Kashmiri Pandits to Gujarat 2002, etc, and it was an ambitious project.”

The FIR claims that donations were asked for and received by both trusts, but Setalvad claims it was only Sabrang. The CJP, Setalvad explains, works mainly to give legal aid to riot victims, whereas Sabrang is the general trust to work on communal harmony.

At the time the memorial was proposed, there were no takers for the flats in Gulberg Society, which is in a Hindu-dominated area in the main city of Ahmedabad. The Sabrang Trust proposed to raise money through donations to purchase the properties from residents at market rates. Residents in turn promised not to sell their property until Sabrang was able to raise enough funds. However, due to rising land prices across Ahmedabad, Sabrang realised they would not be able to raise enough money through only donations. They gave up the idea altogether in 2012.

“By 2012 it was clear that land prices had gone up by four times, so we would have needed an amount which was now impossible through donations,” said Setalvad. “Our organisation incurs an expense of Rs 5 lakhs a month, out of which just Rs 3.5-4 lakh is on legal fees. So we directed the 4.5 lakhs collected for the Gulberg museum to legal aid, with written permission of the donors.” She said she was willing to produce those permission letters in court, but declined to reveal the names of the donors to Scroll.in.

Sabrang then informed Gulberg Society about the decision, which Society accepted. At the end of 2012, the Society passed a resolution stating that owners could sell their property to people of any religion or race, as was the case since it was built in 1963. This resolution was rendered void a little over half a year later, when the Gujarat government dredged up an old law that prevents citizens of a community from selling their property to people outside the community.

The Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act of 1986 was meant to protect people fleeing their homes from communal violence from making a hasty decision of disposing of their property and later regretting it. Around 40 per cent of Ahmedabad is covered by this act. In August 2013, eight months after the Gulberg Society resolution to sell their property to whomever residents pleased, and four months after Zakia Jafri filed her first case against the SIT's closure report, the Gujarat government suddenly extended the application of the law to, among other places, the Gulberg Society and Naroda Patiya.

“Gulberg and Naroda Patiya are two pockets in completely Hindu-dominated areas, which means they are obviously not going to be able to sell to their own community,” said Setalvad. Muslims don't want to live in the Hindu areas for the fear of risking their lives in a possible future pogrom.  Setalvad calls the law illegal and says that it violates the right to own and sell property. “You’re tying their hands and by doing so, you’re getting them to fall at your feet," she said. "Their case is still pending in the court. This law and its use in Gujarat ought to have been a matter of independent investigation by the media in this country.”

She added, “I am alleging openly that this is being done to try and push the survivors of Gulberg Society to a wall, in the hope that maybe one or two of them in desperation might bend to the will of the state and turn hostile even in their own criminal trial.” No one has yet been convicted for the Gulberg Society massacre.

As to the museum, there were no papers, and no transaction between Citizens for Justice and Peace, Sabrang Trust or the residents of Gulberg Society, which Setalvad says, indicates quite clearly that there can be no possible case of cheating. “What is cheating?” Setalvad asked. “You can say it is cheating if I have taken money from you or property from you. Neither has happened. There is no ingredient here to amount to that.”

In fact, the original complaint about the cheating was not filed by representatives of the Society, but had been typed by a few members on the society letterhead without authorisation. The authorised representatives of the society released an affidavit (.pdf) on March 13, 2013, to categorically deny that they had any conflict with Setalvad or her NGOs.

“We state that the NGO has already authorised the society to sell the property last year and therefore there cannot be any grievance against the NGO as the society has not parted with any part of the land,” said an open letter by Sabrang. “Moreover, the donors don’t feel cheated and therefore the signatories, who have not parted with a single pie, have no locus to file any such complaint against the NGO.”

One of the main charges in the FIR is that the two organisations collected funds from foreign donors for the memorial, but had not given the money to the intended recipients. It alleges that the foreign donations Sabrang Trust received between April 10, 2007 and February 20, 2014, amounting to Rs 2.62 crores, were intended for the memorial. It also said that Citizens for Justice and Peace received foreign donations of Rs 1.31 crores.

In a 41-page public affidavit, Setalvad and Anand show excerpts from their accounts to prove that the total amount raised for the museum did not exceed Rs 4.5 lakhs, only Rs 50,000 of which came from foreign donors. The Sabrang Trust received only Rs. 1.33 crore in foreign funds during this period, the bulk of which went towards legal aid. Citizens for Justice and Peace received Rs. 1.15 crores. The Ahmedabad crime branch, they say, manipulated their bank statements to arrive at the figures of Rs 2.62 crores and Rs 1.31 crores.

They two have also filed a case in the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR and sought interim relief from the Supreme Court. Setalvad alleges that this FIR is a conspiracy of the BJP government in Gujarat. “The desire of the Gujarat government is to somehow paralyse this organisation financially by getting all these malafide allegations made,” said Setalvad. “A large part of our donations is to legal aid.”

Harsh Patel of the Gujarat BJP denied this. “The government has nothing to do with this case," he said. "If she has cheated the residents of Gulberg, then we will find out in the court. The truth will come out.”

Taking on Narendra Modi
None of this has yet convinced Teesta Setalvad withdraw her support for Zakia Jafri and her campaign to bring Narendra Modi to trial.

The noise around the Gulberg museum case makes better copy than the tedious process of repeated appeals in courts, but the timeline of the controversy created around the memorial intertwines closely with that of Zakia Jafri’s petition against the SIT report. On February 8, 2006, Jafri filed a 119-page chargesheet alleging that Gujarat's state machinery was involved in the riots. It took  two years and a Supreme Court order for the complaint to be recognised. The court ordered certain cases to be reopened and investigated by an Special Investigative Team comprising five officers, some of whom were replaced over the years.

The SIT filed a closure report in 2012, but failed to share its findings with the complainants. The Supreme Court had to step in again and ordered them to file the report with a local court, which the SIT did only in February 2013. The closure report, which the defenders of Narendra Modi interpret as a clean chit for the chief minister, merely says that despite the evidence gathered by the SIT, which is documented in its voluminous report, there is not enough to merit a case against him.

But Raju Ramachandran, an amicus curiae appointed by the Supreme Court to monitor the process, disagreed, saying that the evidence against Modi was too significant to be judged at a pre-trial stage. In a parallel track, the first complaint about the Gulberg Society memorial was filed in March 2013, a month before Jafri and Setalvad filed their protest petition in April, and in August that year, the Gujarat government extended the Disturbed Areas Act to Gulberg Society.

“Narendra Modi is very upset with [Teesta Setalvad] because she is going after him,” said Kingshuk Nag, author of a biography on the Gujarat chief minister. “She is a hardcore Gujarati, and though she grew up in Bombay, she is from a highly regarded family. A lot of other people have not been as active as she has. She has been proactive in doing relief and rehabilitation work with victims, women and following up with Modi. Therefore he is taking advantage of the fact that she is in charge of these large organisations.”

While the merits of the Gulberg Museum case will be decided in court, this is not the first time that Setalvad and Citizens for Justice and Peace have been targeted by the Gujarat government. In the years after 2002, as it became clear that Citizens for Justice and Peace was going to continue to support riot survivors in their fight for legal justice, the Gujarat police filed FIR after FIR against Setalvad. All of them were found to be spurious and were quashed by the courts.

The Gujarat government has had very little to do with any of the convictions in the 2002 pogrom cases. Of the cases pursued by the Gujarat government, only five per cent resulted in conviction. Of the cases pursued by the SIT or moved to courts in the neighbouring Maharashtra state, the conviction rate has been 39 per cent.

Some criticise Setalvad for focusing so heavily on the figure of the chief minister that it has taken away focus from convicting perpetrators. “It is a fair argument that Setalvad is obsessed with a political battle against Modi,” said Ashok Malik a senior journalist and BJP observer. “It is valid to say that he was the chief minister and he failed to control the riots. But to confuse a valid political case against him, with a legal case is a weak point.”

Setalvad dismisses this criticism. “If it was the case that there was no material against Modi, then I think the Supreme Court of this country would not have ordered an investigation by the SIT. The fact that the SIT report could not find conclusive evidence, but the amicus curiae appointed by the court read the evidence differently, is obviously something the critics are not aware of. I don’t think the other perpetrators will get lost in the battle. The charges are not just on Narendra Modi but on 59 others as well.”

RB Sreekumar, who was Gujarat's chief of intelligence in the months directly after the riots and who submitted a 200-page affidavit listing the circumstantial evidence against Modi, also disagrees with the idea that targeting Modi is unnecessary. “Narendra Modi's plan is to keep the complicity level as low as possible, so that it doesn't reach him,” he said.


That is why Setalvad thinks it is important to have Narendra Modi and the Gujarat government face trial. “We believe they are perpetrators themselves, which is why we decided to assist Zakia Jafri," she said. "It’s still up for grabs; it’s not been decided legally
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Gujarat Police Commit Perjury Lie on Oath

             


March 21, 2014

Press Release

CJP Rebuts Further Malafide Allegations by Gujarat Government

The Gujarat police continue to deal in blatant falsehoods, twisted facts, deliberate jugglery of accounts and foul innuendos, with the malicious intent of colouring the public discourse and prejudice the public mind says Citizens for Justice and Peace.

This Press Release specifically counters the malicious lies in the Affidavit in Sur-Rejoinder filed by KN Patel, IO Crime Branch for the Respondent State of Gujarat dated18.03.2014 in Ahmedabad (and replicated with few changes in Mumbai dated 19.03.2014). For those newspapers/publications that published screaming headlines of us misusing funds, without contacting any office bearers for clarifications, we appeal in the interests of both fair and independent journalism and basic honesty to print this Rebuttal with the same enthusiasm and prominence.

In a counter affidavit filed by her in the Sessions Court in Ahmedabad on March 21, 2014, in response to the affidavit in sur-rejoinder filed by the Gujarat police, Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace, has accused the Gujarat police of once again resorting to blatant falsehoods, twisted facts, deliberate jugglery of accounts and foul innuendos, with the malicious intent of colouring the public discourse and prejudice the public mind. What is most shocking is the brazen manner in which the Gujarat police continue to spread falsehoods through signed affidavits, indicating callous disregard of the justice process. This is nothing short of perjury.

It is evident from the affidavits filed by the Gujarat police that they are in full possession of all our audited accounts, bank accounts (organizational and personal) and personal credit card bills. All of these have been obtained through highly questionable means, which itself is a subject for investigation. That apart, the foul intent and malice of the Gujarat police is more than evident from the fact that despite being in possession of dubiously acquired information it continues to heap falsehood upon falsehood.

In its affidavit in sur-rejoinder, the Gujarat police have claimed that a host of expenses of a purely personal nature incurred through the personal credit card bills of Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand were paid by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and Sabrang Trust. The police cannot but know that this is a blatant lie. All it needed to do to know the facts of the case was to tally the total expenses as shown in the credit card bills with the amounts “reimbursed” to them by the two trusts.  They have deliberately manipulated credit card details from the personal accounts of both, paid from their independent personal incomes as expenses incurred by them from public money.

Neither CJP nor Sabrang Trust has any debit/credit cards in their respective names. For logistical convenience, with the full knowledge and consent of the trustees and auditors of the two trusts, air and train tickets are frequently booked online (using the personal credit cards of Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand). It is only such expenses strictly related to the legitimate activities which are reimbursed by Sabrang Trust and CJP after due verification. Despite being fully aware of this fact, the Gujarat police have claimed, with obvious dubious motive, that a host of personal expenses, including hair-cuts, purchase of grocery, shoes, jewellery etc. have been paid for by the trusts.

Such expenses met out of public funds should “shock the conscience of the court”, claims the sur-rejoinder. If anything, it is the blatant lies on oath repeatedly indulged by the police that should stir the conscience of court.

CJP and Sabrang Trust emphatically and categorically deny the claim made in the affidavit in sur-rejoinder that cash withdrawals from the two trusts totalling Rs. 75,28,000 (over many years) have been siphoned off or pocketed by Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand. That this too is an entirely baseless allegation can be established through the accounts books and cash vouchers of both CJP and Sabrang Trust.

Similarly, the sur-rejoinder claims that funds from the bank accounts of CJP and Sabrang Trust running into lakhs have been transferred into fixed deposits in the “family personal names” of Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand. CJP and Sabrang Trust challenge the Gujarat police to provide evidence of even a single rupee thus transferred from the bank accounts of either of the two trusts into fixed deposits in personal names. Instead, the Gujarat police, functioning in nexus with one family of the Gulberg society and a former employee of CJP cited as “witness” in the specious FIR, is functioning at the behest of the political bigwigs in the state who are seriously affected by the persistent struggle for justice aided by CJP.

On one hand, the sur-rejoinder rubbishes the contention that all the amounts paid by CJP and Sabrang Trust to Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt. Ltd. were towards shared-costs of repair and maintenance expenses of office space and office equipment and shared staff. On the other hand, the Gujarat police claims to have made the “discovery” that the registered offices of all the three organizations – Nirant, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai- 400049) are the same! The simple point that the issue of shared costs would simply not arise if the three organizations had three different and separate office space, office equipments and staff (both administrative and technical/project staff), has escaped the Gujarat police.

The sur-rejoinder reiterates that only Rs. 2.49 lakh was spent on Legal Aid expenses. We challenge the Gujarat police to provide proof of this totally bogus claim. CJP has spent over Rs. 2 crore (nearly hundred times the police claim) on Legal Aid to the victims-survivors of the state-sponsored Gujarat pogrom and this can easily be established through accounts books, voucher files and annually audited accounts. This deliberate underestimation is deliberate and meant to prejudice the public mind.

In its rejoinder the Gujarat police also baselessly claims that we have admitted many of its claims of having transferred crores of funds from the public trusts to our personal accounts. We emphatically and categorically deny having made any such admissions, except to the extent of remunerations for performing specific duties and responsibilities as per Board resolutions of CJP and Sabrang Trust and reimbursements towards expenses incurred on legitimate activities of the two trusts. The campaign launched by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch against the CJP and its Trustees is aimed at crippling the struggle for justice and at maligning and defaming honest, hard working activists in the public domain.

CJP believes that strong action needs to be launched against the falsehoods made on oath as also the coercively manner in which accounting details were obtained. Publications that irresponsibly published a one sided picture without even attempting any clarifications from us are also guilty of defamation and libel for which suitable action will be taken.

Attached is a copy of the Affidavit in Reply to the Sur-rejoinder filed in the Ahmedabad Sessions Court today.


Trustees:
I.M. Kadri                                Nandan Maluste                      Teesta Setalvad
Cyrus Guzder                         Javed Akhtar                           Alyque Padamsee     
Anil Dharker                           Ghulam Pesh Imam                  Javed Anand  
Rahul Bose                            Cedric Prakash



_____________________________________________________________________
Nirant, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai – 400 049. Ph: 2660 2288 email: cjpindia@gmail.com,
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Who Paid for the Surveillance of the Woamn Stalked by Narendra Modi and Amit Shah?

http://gulail.com/snoopgate-new-tapes-nail-bjp-lies/

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Gujarat intelligence and anti-terrorist squad officers stalked and snooped on Madhuri beyond the boundaries of the state. Her would-be husband, parents, brothers and friends were under surveillance too. And this had nothing to do with her personal safety or national security. A Saheb in Gujarat was interested in knowing the details of her love life.
It’s no longer an internal matter of Gujarat.
Some 39 new tapes reveal how a ‘Saheb’ of Gujarat used state machinery and violated all phone tapping related laws to stalk an unsuspecting woman in cities across the country.
BJP’s web of lies exposed:
Lie No 1: The elaborate surveillance was mounted to provide ‘discreet security’ to Madhuri.
Truth:  A Saheb in Gujarat wanted to know about Madhuri’s love life. The police secretly observed Madhuri’s meetings with a man she was about to marry, eavesdropped on her private conversations and then relayed the information back to Saheb.
Lie No 2: The issues raised in Snoopgate are strictly a State subject.
Truth: Snoopgate involved multiple states. Both phones within and outside Gujarat were intercepted.  There was correspondence between Modi’s Government and Y S Yedyurrapa’s Karnataka government over Madhuri’s cell numbers. Her Bangalore Cell phones were also intercepted.
Lie No 3: The two member State appointed Commission is competent to inquire into all the issues arising out of Snoopgate.
Truth: The Commission has no jurisdiction outside Gujarat. The Terms of Reference are based on malafide presumptions. The Commission has been mandated to inquire into ‘conspiracy’ behind the leaks and ‘the objective considerations while arranging discreet security to a woman’.
Lie No 4: The phone tapping was done as per the due process.
Truth: Lower level officers in the State Home Department were made to send illegal phone tapping authorizations.  On one occasion the Karnataka Government turned down the request citing non-compliance of the requirement of the Indian Telegraph Act.
Lie No 5:  Madhuri had agreed to the intrusive surveillance.
Truth: Madhuri had no clue that she was being tailed, her phone conversations were being tapped and her dates were subjected to an intrusive scrutiny by top police officers.
Lie No 6: Madhuri had a security threat.
Truth: Madhuri went out for dinners with her would-be husband, drove around the city alone in a car and travelled alone late into the night without any fear or inhibitions.
Lie No 7: The Gujarat police was providing Madhuri a security cover.
Truth: There was no communication between Madhuri and the police. They scoured through flight passenger lists to figure out her arrival time in Ahmedabad, tailed her when she took an auto from the airport and by following her found out the hotel she was staying at.
Read the full story:
The carefully spun web of lies is coming apart. The stories manufactured by the BJP spin-doctors to defend their prime ministerial candidate from the fallout of the Snoopgate are falling flat. Now, there is a new twist in this sordid tale of an innocent young woman being stalked like a criminal or a terrorist by the anti-terrorist squad and intelligence machinery of Gujarat state government.
All the Saheb's Men: AK Sharma, who was manning the critical post of IG in State Intelligence Bureau, spent most of his time for over two months collecting details of Madhuri's personal life.
All the Saheb’s Men: AK Sharma, who was manning the critical post of IG in State Intelligence Bureau, spent most of his time for over two months collecting details of Madhuri’s personal life.
A new set of audio tapes unravels the brazen lies told by the BJP to defend its leaders and government in Gujarat. These tapes are in exclusive possession of Gulail and are not part of the 267 tapes that were seized from GL Singhal by the CBI in June.
On November 15, Gulail and CobraPost had exposed how the young woman was being stalked by the Gujarat Police. To protect the identity of this unsuspecting victim of round-the-clock illegal surveillance by top cops of Gujarat’s anti-terrorist squad (ATS), who were being directed by then state home minister Amit Shah, we called her ‘Madhuri’.
Now, Gulail is revealing that Madhuri, a Bangalore-based architect, was surveilled by the Gujarat police beyond the
The Whistleblower: IPS officer GL Singhal was part of the core team involved in snooping on Madhuri. To protect his own skin Singhal secretly recorded his telephonic conversations with Amit Shah and Sharma.
The Whistleblower: IPS officer GL Singhal was part of the core team involved in snooping on Madhuri. To protect his own skin Singhal secretly recorded his telephonic conversations with Amit Shah and Sharma.
boundaries of the state. Gulail has obtained 39 new audio tapes of telephone conversations which reveal that the Gujarat Home Department had contacted the Karnataka government in 2009 and sought authorization to intercept the cellphone of Madhuri in whose private life – her movements and relationships – a Saheb was taking great personal interest. Both Mahduri’s family and BJP leadership have admitted that the Saheb in question was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi .
This completely demolishes the claims made by top BJP leaders that Madhuri was being “provided security” during her visits to Gujarat at the request of her father. The new revelations also make irrelevant the commission set up by Gujarat government to look into the allegations as it was an inter-state police operation, with phones both from within and outside Gujarat being illegally tapped in two different states.
These 39 tapes contain phone conversations between two IPS officers, GL Singhal, who is now a prime accused in the staged-managed killings of Ishrat Jahan, and AK Sharma, then IG of the State Intelligence Bureau.
While the first batch of tapes, revealed by Gulail last month, showed that Madhuri was stalked by the Gujarat police during her visits to the state, the new tapes expose that this surveillance went beyond Gujarat. In 2009, when
Y S Yedyurrapa was the Chief Minister of the BJP government in Karnataka, the Gujarat police contacted their Karnataka counterparts, asking them to help in illegal tapping of Madhuri’s cellphone.
A shocking picture emerges from the new tapes. The Gujarat police not only circumvented the process for tapping of phones, some junior officers of the state home department directly ordered the telecom companies to carry out illegal surveillance. This was done in clear violation of Indian Telegraph Rule 419 (A) and the Gujarat Government’s own notification (dated 29th March 1997), which clearly state that a phone can be tapped only with the written authorization of the Union Home Secretary or State Home Secretary.
But in their pursuit of Madhuri, the Gujarat cops were in no mood to follow any rules or laws. At least in once instance, the Karnataka government turned down the Gujarat government’s request on the grounds that the due procedure was not being followed and that the order had been signed by a junior officer who was not even authorized to issue phone-tapping instructions.
The new tapes also establish it beyond doubt that the surveillance, which involved massive use of state machinery, was mounted not to protect Madhuri but to stalk her and pry into her private life. Just like in the first batch of tapes, here too all the persons involved in this illegal operation – from Singhal to Sharma to Amit Shah — were passing on the information gathered to a superior authority who is repeatedly referred to as the ‘Saheb’.
The new tapes also prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Madhuri’s phones were not being tapped in public interest or for public safety. On the contrary, the information obtained was all about Madhuri’s private life, and it was then relayed to ‘Saheb’. It was just not Madhuri, but her would-be husband, whom she was dating at the time, her friends, brother and parents were all kept under a close watch through physical and telephonic surveillance, which went on for at least two months, if not more.
When this illegal surveillance was launched, Madhuri was living in Bangalore and visited her friends and family in Gujarat every now and then. Her Bangalore numbers, it emerges from the tapes, were intercepted by the Gujarat police to get details about her personal life in the city. The conversations between Singhal and Sharma reveal that an under-secretary from the Gujarat Home Department wrote to the Home Department of Karnataka, asking it to put Madhuri’s Bangalore cellphone number under surveillance. But the then Karnataka Home Secretary turned down the request. In one of the tapes, Sharma can be heard telling Singhal that the Karnataka Home Secretary demanded authorization from the Gujarat Home Secretary and asked for it to be delivered in person by a Gujarat police officer.
According to Rule 419 (A) of the Indian Telegraph Act, directions for phone interception can be issued only by the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, in the case of Government of India, and by the Secretary, Home Department, in the case of a state government. In emergency cases, such order may be made by an officer not below the rank of a Joint Secretary to the Government of India, who has been duly authorized by the Union Home Secretary or the State Home Secretary, as the case may be. All such orders are supposed to contain valid reasons for such direction.
But, in complete violation of these rules, the taped conversations show that the interception request was generated by Sharma, the former IG of intelligence. What further confirms the illegal nature of the phone tapping operation is the fact that Sharma, instead of complying with the due procedure as demanded by the Karnataka Home Department, dropped the idea of tapping Madhuri’s Bangalore cellphone.
BS-Yedduyurappa
B S Yeddyurappa: The government of the then Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa turned down the phone tapping requests of Modi government citing non-compliance of the due process.
The other shocking part of this disturbing story is the involvement of private telecom operators in the illegal surveillance. Gulail’s investigation shows that to intercept a phone for the first seven days, the Gujarat police wrote directly to the telecom service providers, without routing it through the Home Department. The requests for phone interception were often sent by an under-secretary level officer and requests for Call Data Records were sent by as junior an officer as a sub-inspector. The conversations between Singhal and Sharma also show that senior officials of telecom firms were at the beck and call of Gujarat police.
Speaking to Gulail, a senior manager of a telecom company said that when a phone was put under surveillance, the Gujarat police didn’t need an authorization from the Home Department for the first seven days. Often, revealed the manager, the first seven-day period was arbitrarily extended by the Gujarat police by another week. But, for numbers outside Gujarat, the state police was required to route it through the Home Department of the state in question. That’s why to intercept Madhuri’s Bangalore phone the Gujarat police had to write to the Karnataka Home Department once they had exhausted the first seven-day quota.
Gulail’s investigation also shows that the Gujarat police routinely sent interception authorizations signed by an under-secretary level officer of the State’s Home Department to telecom service providers in Gujarat who almost always acceded to the request.
Gulail is ready to produce the video recorded statement of the telecom officer we interviewed before a competent investigating agency.
From these tapes and our investigations, it’s clear that the Gujarat government violated all laws and rules to intrude into the privacy of a citizen who posed no threat to anyone. Nor was there any perceived threat to her. This surveillance was not about Madhuri’s personal safefty. Nor was it about our national security. Madhuri was stalked because the ‘Saheb’ was obsessed with her – and her love life.
These dirty secrets came out in the open on November 15, when Gulail and Cobrapost released 257 recorded telephonic conversations between Shah and GL Singhal, revealing that in 2009 the BJP Government in Gujarat had misused its powers to illegally intercept the phones of a young woman architect.
But the Bharatiya Janta Party dismissed the expose, claiming that the surveillance-cum-phone tapping was entirely legal and done at the request of Madhuri’s father. As a damage-control exercise, the BJP office even circulated an undated letter signed by Madhuri’s father Pranlal Soni, claiming that he had personally requested Modi to “look after” Madhuri. Soon, another letter, purportedly written by Pranlal Soni, was dropped at the reception of the National Commission for Women. In that letter, it was reiterated that Madhuri’s surveillance and phone interception was done with her consent to protect her.
But the new tapes prove beyond doubt that the sole purpose of this surveillance was to stalk Madhuri, and not to protect her. The BJP’s claim that the exercise was done to “protect” doesn’t hold water either. According to Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act and several Supreme Court judgments, phone tapping can be done only in the event of the occurrence of a public emergency or in the interest of public safety, if the Central Government or the State Government or any officer specially authorized is satisfied that it is essential to do so in the interest of:
  1. The sovereignty and integrity of India.
  2. The security of the State.
  3. Friendly relations with foreign states.
  4. Public order.
  5. For preventing incitement to the commission of an offence.
Barring these five situations, tapping the phone of an Indian citizen is not allowed at all. By BJP’s own admission, Madhuri did not pose any threat to public order or public safety. Their best defence is that the surveillance was done to provide Madhuri ‘discreet protection.’
But the new tapes nail the BJP’s brazen lies. The content of the tapes makes it clear that the Gujarat cops neither perceived nor discussed among themselves any direct or indirect threat to Madhuri. Nor did any officer speak to Madhuri or her family members to enquire about her wellbeing. They were just following like invisible ghosts.
From one of the conversations, it emerges that the police had no idea about the hotel in Ahmedabad she was booked into or how did she look like. So they tailed a woman they suspected to be Madhuri from the Ahmedabad airport to find out the hotel she was going to stay at. Even then, they were not sure if they had followed the right woman. So Singhal asked for a photo of hers. Singhal also wanted to plant a policeman in an adjoining room in Madhuri’s hotel to keep an eye on her movements.
It’s also clear from these tapes that the focus of the surveillance was Madhuri’s personal conversations and intimate meetings with her future husband. They were both closely observed. In these tapes, her love-life is the most important matter of discussion and analysis between Sharma and Singhal. The two senior police officers also made plans to photograph Madhuri’s would-be husband as their cops tailed the couple wherever they went: restaurants, ice cream parlours, paan shops and even his residence.
Shah of Snooping: For more than two months Amit Shah spent all his waking hours presiding over the illegal snooping and stalking on Madhuri and relayed the real time information back to his Saheb.
Shah of Snooping: For more than two months Amit Shah spent all his waking hours presiding over the illegal snooping and stalking on Madhuri and relayed the real time information back to his Saheb.
The question is who wanted to know all these intimate details about Madhuri’s personal life? BJP wants everyone to believe that it was Madhuri’s family who wanted this for her protection. Now, it’s clear that neither Madhuri nor her family had any clue about the ongoing snooping. It’s also clear that this secret, illegal operation was done to regularly update the ‘Saheb’ about Madhuri and her love life.
From the BJP leaders’ own statements that Madhuri’s father had made a personal request to Modi for her daughter’s protection, there is little doubt who the Saheb is? It’s time for the BJP to spinning false tales about this crime. It’s time for the ‘Saheb’ to come out in the open and come clean on his role in this major scandal.
Even US National Security Agency (NSA), notorious for electronic surveillance, didn’t go to this length to stalk and haunt innocent citizens.
To see part-1 click here
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