Press Release: Eighth Day of Arguments in Zakia Jafri Protest Petition

The decision to hand over bodies to Jaideep
Patel, general secretary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and
co-accused and collaborator in the carefully orchestrated
conspiracy executed by A-1 Narendra Modi, was a deliberate,
criminal and conscious act that must be prosecuted as it was
aimed at handing over GujaratÂ’s streets to the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) so that targeted violence against innocent
sections of the Muslim minorities could be spread and unleashed.
Instead of limiting the violation and agitation to Godhra city
after the tragic train burning on 27.2.2002, where curfew was
rightly declared by

10 a.m., curfew orders were
absent or deliberately delayed elsewhere and GujaratÂ’s streets
were handed over, the police and administration consciously
neutralised for bloodshed to ensue. This was argued by advocate
Mihir Desai on the eighth day of arguments for the Zakia Jafri
Protest Petition before the 11th Metropolitan
MagistrateÂ’s Court, Ahmedabad today.

This was a systematically thought out game plan
executed by sections of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
and VHP, where office bearers and influential functionaries
collaborated in the mass and targeted violence. Reading out from
extensive records of the SIT that had been suppressed from both
the Supreme Court and the Amicus Curiae, records obtained from
the then DGP, Gujarat in 2010, former DGP Mahapatra (annexures
to his affidavit before the Nanavati Commission) and also
annexures to former ADGP-Intelligence RB SreekumarÂ’s affidavit
filed in July 2002, advocate for Zakia Jafri and Citizens for
Justice and Peace pointed out how the state home department
headed by A-1 Home Minister Narendra Modi was aware and warned
of the excessive communal mobilisation
before the Godhra tragedy on 27.2.2002 and yet chose to
deliberately and criminally ignore taking adequate preventive
action.

(Annexed to this press release are some of these
messages that are part of the Protest Petition, Page 192-199
Volume 1). Ashok Narayan AC Home and also co-accused in the
complaint mentions this in his statement and yet SIT that was
mandated by the Supreme Court on the basis of the complaint
dated 8.6.2006 to investigate every aspect of the wider criminal
conspiracy deliberately chose not to deal with this at all.

The call for Bandh by the VHP that was
immediately supported by the ruling BJP and knowledge of this
was with the administration from 1230 hours on 27.2.2002 while
A-1 Modi was still at Gandhinagar, while the Assembly session
was on was also part of the calibrated conspiracy to hand over
the streets to the VHP. Scoffing at ModiÂ’s statement before the
SIT where he states that he came to know of the BJP support for
the bandh only on the evening of February 27, 2002, Mihir Desai
also read from a detailed analysis of the phone call records of
the chief minister.

Annexed to the Protest Petition at Annexure
Volume IV, this Analysis carries startling details that show
that from the seven landlines available to the chief minister at
his office and residence, only a handful (barely six to seven
calls are received on the fateful day) of which one is from VHP
strongman Jaideep Patel, also a co-accused. Reminding the 11th
Magisterial Court hearing the protest petition that the first
two calls made by the chief minister, Accused Nos 1 from the his
PS AP PatelÂ’s Phone, two were to Jaideep Patel on 27.2.2002 to
despatch him to Godhra, take control of the situation, further
inflame passions, transport the bodies to Godhra when law and
procedure demanded that only the police and administration
should have been given the bodies, that too to dispose of
quietly after identification by their families. Despite the fact
that such identification was not completed the VHP was allowed
by a top level decision a few run of the streets. The SIT in a
superficial and biased investigation had examined several
officials of the chief ministerÂ’s office (CMO) but consciously
failed to record the statement of AP Patel. Why demanded Desai?

Worst of all was the conduct of the SIT in
keeping the Supreme Court, the Amicus Curiae and even the
MagistrateÂ’s Court in the dark about the host of documentary
evidence that substantiates charges of criminal conspiracy,
violent communal build up and attacks on the minorities from the
afternoon of February 27, 2002 itself. One such example, Desai
pointed out from the records of the SIT was a letter from
secretary CJP, Teesta Setalvad (April 2011) to AK Malhotra, IO
SIT about the sudden memory returning to A-29 former
Commissioner of Police PC Pande when, only after the Supreme
Court orders further investigation on 15.3.2011 does he produced
CDs with 3,500 pages of scanned Police Control Room messages of
the Ahmedabad City. PandeÂ’s memory lapse for nine years is
ignored, said Desai, but Sanjiv BhattÂ’s memory lapse of seven
years is commented upon heavily, sarcastically commented Desai.
The role and motive of the SIT was and is clearly to not
investigate serious charges thoroughly and protect powerful
accused. Arguments will continue on Friday.

ANNEXURE

Tables from protest petition
Annex IV File XIV (5731 to 6140)
About incidents on Dt. 27/2/02

Annexure III File XXXIV

D-176 Part-I

…

Annexure

A P Patel27-02-2002



Narendra Modi 27-28.02.2002

110421 Letter to A K Malhotra (SIT)

Teesta Setalvad, Secretary

Other Trustees:

I.M. Kadri,               Nandan Maluste

Cyrus Guzder        Javed Akhtar
Alyque Padamsee
Anil Dharker          Ghulam Peshimam
Rahul Bose

Javed Anand         Cedric
Prakash