CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST MODI (SUMMARY)
Introduction:-
The Zakia Jafri
Criminal Complaint against Narendra Modi and 59 Others, supported by
Citizens for Justice & Peace, Mumbai, was ordered to be investigated
by the Supreme Court, first on 27.4.2009 and thereafter through
subsequent orders. Zakia Jafri & CJP have been attempting to get
serious criminal charges registered and investigated since
8.6.2006. The Special Investigation team (SIT) originally asked to
further investigate None Major Trials was assigned the task
(27.4.2009). An Amicus Curiae was also appointed to assist the
Court. The SIT in its reports from 2010 onwards arrived at the
conclusion that while several of the allegations were found to be
correct , there was not sufficient material to prosecute the
accused.
In stark
contrast, the Amicus Curiae senior advocate Raju Ramachandran
looking at the same evidence collected by the SIT, came to a
contrary conclusion, stating clearly that there was evidence
enough to prosecute Narendra Modi. Faced with this dilemma of two
contrary assessments, the Supreme Court remanded the matter to a
lower Court directing SIT to file its Final Report there. The SC
specifically directed that if the SIT filed a closure report, the
Complainants were fully within their legal rights to file a
Protest petition and access all Investigation papers/documents.
(This is a right under Indian law but was specifically outlined by
the Supreme Court in its final judgement dated 12.9.2011).
Predictably, the
SIT filed a closure report on 8.2.2012 and remained adamant against
making Investigation papers available to the Complainants in
contempt o the Supreme Court order. The Magistrate granted the
Complainant her right to the Investigation Papers on 10.4.2012 but
it took Zakia Jafri & CJP another year to access all the
Investigation reports of the SIT submitted to the Supreme Court. The
SC directed this on 7.2.2013 after which the Protest Petition was
filed on 15.4.2013. From June 24-August 29, 2013 rigorous arguments
in support of the Zakia Jafri Protest Petition were made before
Judge Ganatra, 11th Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad. The final
day of arguments on behalf of the Complainant took place on
18.9.2013. Detailed Written Submissions on Legal and Factual Aspects
were submitted to the Court today. Now the Judgement of the
Magistrate will be awaited.
Narendra Modi faces Fifteen Serious Charges of :-
·
1.
Willfully Ignoring Messages from State Intelligence about the
Violent Repercussions of the RSS-VHP called ‘Mahayajna’ before the
tragic Godhra incident on 27.2.2002 and deliberately not
initiating precautionary measures that are imperative under
Standard Operational Procedure; messages from 7.2.2002 to
25.2.2002, including specific ones that stated that batches of
2,800 and 1,900 kar sevaks had left for Faizabad-Ayodhya and had
been behaving provocatively and aggressively against minorities on
the way. As cabinet minister for home and chief minister, he is
directly responsible MOS Home Gordhan Zadaphiya is a constant
Co-Conspirator.
·
2.
Deliberately concealing knowledge of the provocative, anti-Muslim
sloganeering by kar sevaks at the Godhra station when the
Sabarmati Express reached five hours late on 27.2.2002, which
information had been sent to him directly by DM/Collector Jayanti
Ravi and willfully failing to take stern action and allowing
violent incidents to escalate after the train left Godhra by about
1.15 p.m. especially at Vadodara station where a Muslim was
attacked and killed and at Anand where the train stopped hereafter
ensuring that the state allowed a hate-filled and threatening
atmosphere against Muslims build right up to Ahmedabad where the
train finally reached around 4 p.m. and where bloodthirsty slogans
were being shouted. FIRs in 19 brutal incidents against Muslims
are recorded on 27.2.2002 in Ahmedabad itself. Curfew was not
imposed despite these incidents resulting in deaths breaking out.
·
3.
Conspiring with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to plot and allow
reprisal killings all over Gujarat. The first phone call that Modi
makes after DM RaviÂ’s fax reaches him is, not to appeal for
peace and calm, but phone secretary VHP, Gujarat, Dr Jaideep
Patel and direct him to Godhra. The Conspiracy between Modi and
the VHP is hatched and unfurled to cynically ensure state-wide
reprisal killings. Phone call records show these phone calls
between PA to Modi AP Patel and Jaideep Patel immediately after
the chief minister receives news of the Godhra tragedy. Phone call
records made available by Rahul Sharma (IPS, Gujarat) also show
that Powerful Accused were in touch with the chief ministerÂ’s
office (CMO) and the landline numbers of the chief minister.
·
4.
Brazenly supporting the Bandh call called by the VHP and allowing
the streets and public spaces of Gujarat to be used for mass
attacks and violence. By 12 noon on 27.2.2002, state intelligence
and the police were aware of the Bandh call; the bandh was uses by
the police machinery to clear the streets of ordinary citizens so
that aggressive mobs could target minority populations and their
establishments.
·
5.
Cynically, and illegally allowed Post Mortems Illegally out in the
Open at the Railway Yard, Godhra where the burnt and mutilated
corpses were laid in full view of an aggressive and irate crowd of
RSS and VHP men and women, who were gathered there in violation of
Curfew Orders @ Godhra. Deliberately allowing photographs
of the burnt corpses to be taken and widely circulated by the
RSS-VHP and media in general, despite it being prevented under
law;
·
6.
Personally instigating individual RSS-VHP men and women at the
railway yard at Godhra assuring them that enough time will be
allowed by the Modi-led government and administration to extract a
revenge for Godhra.
·
7.
Directing that the unidentified bodies of Godhra train victims
should be handed over to Jaideep Patel, a non-governmental person,
that too belonging to a supremacist and communal VHP to be brought
to Ahmedabad where aggressive funeral processions in full public
view were allowed. Modi directed this at a meeting at the
Collectorate in the evening of 27.2.2002 before he returned to
Gandhinagar. Jaideep Patel was allowed to be present at an
official meeting at the Collectorate. Jaideep Patel is a
co-conspirator and also facing trial for mass crimes in the
ongoing Naroda Gaam case. Modi is specifically guilty of allowing
the escalation of violence from Godhra to other parts of Gujarat
and taking decisions contrary to law.
·
8.
Specifically instructing his top policemen and administrators not
to act evenhandedly in the days to follow and “allow Hindus to
vent their anger.” Two senior bureaucrats present at the meeting
have stated that cabinet ministers were present at a meeting that
went on well past midnight. Haren Pandya, a minister in ModiÂ’s
cabinet in 2002 had given evidence of this to the Concerned
CitizenÂ’s Tribunal headed by Justice Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant in
2002 itself. Later in 2009 a serving officer from the state
intelligence, Sanjiv Bhatt also gave the same evidence before the
SIT and the Supreme Court.
·
9.
Preventing the Imposition of Curfew. Curfew was deliberately not
imposed at Ahmedabad while over 3,000 RSS workers were allowed to
gather at the Sola Civil Hospital where Jaideep Patel arrived with
the bodies of the Godhra victims at about 4 a.m. The crowd was
aggressive and violent as proved from the police control room
records. No steps were taken to disperse the crowd that attacked
the hospital staff and doctors, a High Court judge, Violent
funeral processions were allowed to wind through the streets of
Ahmedabad for several hours at two locations; worst Acharya
Giriraj Kishore was given police escort to come and further
provoke the aggressive mob; the cremations took place only in the
evening and attacks on Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaam and Gulberg
Society where over 200 persons were massacred (and rapes allowed)
in broad daylight on the same day, 28.2.2002, while violent and
aggressive funeral processions were willfully allowed by Modi and
the police and administration.
·
10.
Making pretence of verbally calling in the Army on the late evening
of 28.2.2002 but not actually allowing its deployment in Ahmedabad,
Godhra and Bhavnagar and Varodara until 2.3.2002 and 3.3.2002. Worse
badly affected districts like Mehsana, Panchmahals, Dahod, Anand,
Kheda were not given ant Army or Paramilitary at all.
·
11.
Fourteen out of GujaratÂ’s 25 districts were allowed to burn as
Ministers were specifically deployed by Modi to interfere with
Police functioning and sit in the State Control Room and Ahmedabad
City Control Room; in Eleven Districts where Violence was
controlled, the Police Officers in Charge were given Punitive
Transfers to send a Political Message. Modi heads the Home
department that bends the Police Bureaucracy and Police to his
Will.
·
12.
Modi allowed violence to continue unabated until early May 2002 when
KPS Gill was sent by PM Vajpayee to the state; the National Human
Rights Commission (NHRC), April and July 2002 and Central Election
Commission (CEC) were misled about the spread and intensity of
violence. This was willful subversion of the justice system.
The Subversion of the Home Department under A-1 in which co-accused,
Gordhan Zadaphiya, MOS Home, A-5, Ashok Narayan, ACS Home, A-28,
and K Nityanandam, Secretary, Home, A-34 played an active part
included deliberately misinforming the Ministry of Home Affairs of
the Government of India about the extent and spread of violence:-
Correspondence exists to reveal how senior VHP and RSS men were
being kept out of the FIRs and charge sheets related to serious
massacres being filed by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch; how violence
was recurrent and was being allowed with even ministers like Bharat
Barot directly involved.
·
13.
Partisan prosecutors belonging to the RSS-VHP were appointed to
ensure that cases were killed in their infancy; bail was easily
granted to powerful accused until the Supreme Court stepped in, in
2003 and 2004. Two trials, the Best Bakery trial and the Bilkees
Bano cases were transferred out of the state.
·
14.
Hate Speech was indulged in by Modi himself, on 27.2.2002 and right
until the infamous Becharaji speech made top set off his election
campaign on 9.9.2002 and also cynically permitted by the Home
Department under him to spread poison and incite violence against
Muslims and Christians. The State Intelligence under ADGP-Int RB
Sreekumar had specifically recommended prosecution of the VHP for a
series of incendiary pamphlets but this was ignored. SP Bhavnagar,
Rahul Sharma too had recommended the prosecution of Sandesh,
the Gujarati mainstream newspaper for publishing false and
provocative photographs and reports. Both the NHRC and EditorÂ’s
Guild had also strongly recommended prosecution of those guilty of
hate speech. Modi had, instead sent congratulatory letters to those
newspapers who had spread lies and venom. RB Sreelumar, Rahul Sharma
and Sanjiv Bhatt are among the officers persecuted by the Gujarat
government under Modi (home minister).