In The
Name Of Modi
FACT FINDING REPORT:
"ONE MORE ENCOUNTER FOR MODI'S SAKE?"
24 July, 2004
CPDR Mumbai
A report of
All India Fact Finding Team on the 'encounter' of four alleged terrorists
by Gujarat Police on June 15, 2004 at Ahmedabad
Fact Finding
Team: PUDR, Delhi: Svati Joshi; PUCL, Gujarat: Kirit Bhatt, Chinnu Srinivasan
and Manzoor Saleri; APCLC, Andhra Pradesh: CHLN Moorthy; CPDR, Maharashtra:
Gopal, Haridas and Anand Teltumbde
The
alleged encounter death of four terrorists in Ahmedabad on 15 June 2004,
who according to the police were on a mission to assassinate the Gujarat
Chief Minister Narendra Modi, struck headlines even as political circles
were rife with comments on Vajpayee's demand for Modi's ouster. It is
well known that in recent years, since the Post-Godhra carnage Gujarat
has become a site for 'encounter' deaths where the same motive has been
attributed to the slain 'terrorists'. What perhaps made the 15 June
incident sensational was the involvement of a teen-aged college girl
from Mumbai, Ishrat Jehan in the incident. The fissures in the law enforcing
agencies came into the open when the Thane police contradicted the claim
of the Gujarat police of having received information from Mumbai that
the four terrorists had set out on the assassination mission. The police
version of the 'Modi Assassination conspiracy', the nature of the 'encounter',
and also the claims about the links of the slain with terrorist outfits,
appeared to be, and continue to remain shrouded in mystery. The instruction
by the NHRC to the Gujarat police, in response to Ishrat's mother, to
take appropriate action with regard to the investigation of the case,
confirmed that the police version had failed to pass even the prima
facie test. In order to collect information about the incident, an all
India fact finding team consisting of members from various human rights
and civil liberties organizations visited Ahmedabad on 24 June 2004.
The team consisted of Kirit Bhatt, Chinnu Srinivasan, Manzoor Saleri
[PUCL, Vadodara], Svati Joshi [PUDR, Delhi], CHLN Moorthy [APCLC, Hyderabad],
Gopal Srinivasan and Haridas [CPDR, Mumbai]. The team visited the site
of the encounter, talked with the people staying in the nearby area
and interacted with media persons. The team wanted to meet the police
officials concerned with the incident, but some of them were not present
in Ahmedabad on that day and some others seemed unwilling to give an
appointment. The team could meet only with the Joint police Commissioner,
Crime Branch, Mr. P.P. Pandey. Gopal, Haridas and Anand of CPDR visited
Mumbra on 27 June 2004 to collect information regarding Ishrat Jehan.
THE POLICE VERSION
According to the
press statement issued by the Crime Branch, Ahmedabad, which carried
out the operation, the police officials acted on the information provided
by the 'intelligence sources' that two Pakistani fidayeen terrorists
belonging to Lashkar-e-Toyeeba (LeT), on a mission to kill Modi had
set out separately to reach Ahmedabad. They were Jishan Johar alias
Janbaaz alias Abdul Gani, resident of Gujaranwala district, Punjab,
Pakistan and Amjad Ali Akbarali Rana alias Salin alias Chandu alias
Rajkumar of Sargoda district of Punjab, Pakistan. They were being helped
by an LeT terrorist Javed of Pune in arranging a local network to kill
Modi.
An FIR was lodged
with the Crime Branch police station on 15 June 2004, on a plain paper
by the complainant P.I. J.G. Parmar in the presence of ACP, Crime Branch,
G.L. Singhal, both of whom were involved in the incident. The FIR states
that at 11 p.m. on 14.6.2004 the Joint Police Commissioner P.P. Pandey
received information through 'his private sources' that that a blue
Indica carrying the terrorists had left Mumbai with arms and ammunition.
Six police teams were then immediately stationed at Narol cross roads,
CTM cross roads, Naroda S.T. workshop, Naroda -Himatnagar railway crossing,
Indira bridge circle and Vishala circle in anticipation of the vehicle
carrying the terrorists. The Narol team saw the Indica car entering
the city and proceed towards Naroda road at about 4 a.m. and gave it
a chase. The police teams stationed at various places were contacted
on wireless and two police teams decided to intercept the Indica on
the deserted stretch of a road with a sharp bend near Kotarpur Water
works which connects the national highway and Indira bridge leading
to Gandhinagar. They did so by forcing the car to halt by shooting at
its rear tyres. According to the police one of the terrorists got out
of the car and opened fire from an AK 56 rifle, while others fired from
inside the car. But before that the driver, the ACP, the PSI, and the
commando of the police van chasing the car got down and immediately
positioned themselves behind the police van and began firing from AK
47 rifle in self defence and fired 10 rounds. In the meantime when it
'became certain that these were the same dreaded terrorists' the ACP
Dr. Amin ordered the commandos 'to fire at the terrorists' and 32 rounds
from AK 47 and 10 rounds from the stengun were fired at the terrorist
stationed near the divider and several rounds from their service revolvers
at those inside the car. Firing continued from both sides for some time.
After some time when the firing stopped from the other side, the police
found the terrorist stationed near the road divider and three terrorists
seated in the car, including 'a woman terrorist' dead on the spot.
The Press Note issued
by the police states that ACP Dr. Narendra Amin who was at Naroda Chowkadi
saw the blue Indica car and followed it. When it took turn towards airport
road from Naroda- Himmatnagar Railway crossing, he asked ACP Singhal
to intercept the car from the front and alerted all other police parties.
Accordingly Singhal came to a turn near Kotarpur Water works and took
position along with his team. It is the ACP Amin who was following the
Indica in a Gypsy ordered his commando to fire at the tyre of the car
to halt it. After the Indica came to halt, one terrorist sitting on
left side came out of the car and fired at the Gypsy. Police fired 10
rounds in self-defence. After confirming the identity of the car, Amin
ordered his commandoes to fire. The press note gives the count of rounds
and the names of police personnel who fired them. In all 70 rounds were
fired from the police side; 32 from AK 47, 10 from sten gun, and 18
from service revolvers. As against that the terrorists fired 35 rounds
from AK 56 rifle and 7 rounds from 2 pistols. Going by the press note,
the police firing at Indica has entirely taken place form the rear side
of Indica and by Amin's team.
The encounter took
place near the Kotarpur Water Works and around 4.30 a.m. and lasted
for nearly half an hour. Two of the slain terrorists, Jishan Johar and
Amjadali Akbarali Rana are said to be Pakistanis. Of the remaining two,
Javed hailed from Pune and Ishrat Jehan Shaikh from Mumbra. The FIR
states that the accused who were the Pakistani fidayeen terrorists who
had entered India without any proper document, equipped with arms and
ammunition, with an intention of killing chief minister Narendra Modi,
had opened fire on the police party which had gone to arrest them and
therefore they should all be tried under 3(2)(a),(c) 13, 14, of The
Foreigners Act, IPC 120B, 121, 121A, 123, 307, 353, 186, Arms Act 25(1(
A, 27, 29 and the prevention of Terrorist Act 3(1),(a)(b), 3(2), 3(3),
20, 21 and B.P. Act 135(1).
The police claim
that one AK 56 gun; three magazines with 81 bullets, one empty magazine,
two pistols, a satellite phone, cash worth 2.06 lakh, and two mobile
phones were recovered from the alleged terrorists. A number of coconuts
dipped in some chemicals along with 20 kg packets of explosive powder
which according to police inference were planned to be used for producing
an improvised explosive device (IED) were also stored in the Indica.
Interestingly, Urdu literature which the crime branch says is meant
to teach the fidayeen the act of manufacturing IED was also recovered.
Even as the above
version of the police started doing the rounds, the obvious question
has been asked as to why the terrorists squad could not be intercepted
much earlier and why they were allowed to travel on the national highway
from Mumbai up to Narol Road near Gandhinagar where Narendra Modi is
stationed. When the team met Mr. P.P. Pandey, Joint Commissioner of
Police (JCP), Crime Branch, the team members put this question to him.
His reply was that he was responsible only for the Ahmedabad city which
was under his jurisdiction. Again when asked about the intelligence
source that had given the police intimation regarding the terrorist
squad, Mr. Pandey was not ready to share much. "The sources can
not be revealed in the interest of operations, in the interest of future
operations, in the interest of national security", he said. He
also said that the source need not be official channels and that there
could be various 'private' channels. When asked as to why no attempt
had been made to arrest the terrorists, his answer was evasive. The
identities of the two slain terrorists who have been described as Pakistanis
also do not seem to have been confirmed. When Mr. Pandey was asked what
proof he had to determine their Pakistani identity, he stated that nobody
had claimed their bodies so far, whereas the other two bodies [of Javed
and Ishrat] were claimed by their relatives. This 'proved' that they
were not of Indian origins and that they were Pakistanis. When it was
pointed out to him that since no photographs of them were flashed either
in news papers or on television, and since a large population of India
stayed in far off villages where news hardly reached, he added that
he had given orders to the Information department to flash their pictures
and the process had started which would of course take some time and
cost 15 to 20 lakh rupees! Other than the claims by the Crime Branch,
Gujarat, which was also reported by Times of India (TOI) (Ahmedabad
edition) on 18 June 2004, that they had had intelligence that one of
the two crossed over the Line of Control (LoC) from Jammu Sector and
the other through Kashmir Sector, there seems to be no authentic proof
on this count. Sources in Crime Branch are reported to have told the
media that the two had entered India illegally way back in April. As
the report of TOI (Ahmedabad) on 17 June 2004 says, "what were
their activities since then (i.e., since April) is a matter of investigation".
According to the JPC, Crime Branch, P.P. Pandey, one of the slain Pakistanis,
Jishan Johar had an identity card issued by the executive magistrate
of Mahore in Udhampur district but he did not believe he was a bonafide
Indian Kashmiri. The card may be fake but this proves he had stayed
in Udhampur after his illegal entry into the country. What seems to
be replicated apparently is the story of the two slain terrorists in
the Akshardham attack in September 2002. As TOI (Ahmedabad) reported
on18 June 2004, "..... However even in the case of the Akshardham
attack in September 2002, where the two slain terrorists were believed
to be LeT operatives from Pakistan, the neighboring country has denied
the claim and refused to take possession of the bodies."
Our team members
were puzzled over the fact that the road on which the encounter is said
to have happened for half an hour with sophisticated weapons like AK47
and AK56, no bullet marks were visible either on the road or on the
nearby divider which is about 1.5 feet wide. The police attribute no
injury to policemen during the encounter to their taking shelter behind
the police Gypsy. Considering that there was heavy firing from both
sides according to the police, and that too in the dark, surely some
stray firing would have left some marks. Again, according to the media
reports (Indian Express, 16/06/04) the Gypsy suffered only minor damage
(11 bullet holes on one side) while the Indica car in which the terrorists
traveled had its rear side windscreen and the two windscreens on one
side completely smashed. Besides it was riddled with several bullet
marks all over. In the pictures released by the media too the blue Indica
car, which had its rear side smashed, was shown more frequently. The
Police Gypsy that is supposed to have got bullet holes was not shown.
This raises suspicion about the police version of heavy firing from
the 'terrorists'.
It may be recalled
that this is not for the first time that the Gujarat police has claimed
to have acted to thwart the conspiracy to assassinate Modi. In fact
there have been several encounter deaths in the post genocide period
in Gujarat, three (including the present case) of which have been attributed
to the killing of Modi and other ministers. On 23 October 2002, Samir
Khan Pathan, arrested in connection with a 'Modi murder plot' died in
an 'encounter' while in judicial custody. He was taken out on one day
and killed on the Usmanpura road in Ahmedabad. A few months later, on
2 January 2003, a local court acquitted all the other thirteen accused
in the same plot for want of evidence. (When asked by our team members
why no case was registered against the guilty police personnel involved
in this 'encounter', even after the court verdict had announced those
arrested innocent, Mr. Pandey had no answer.) Again, on 13 January 2003,
Sadiq Jamal Mehttar was shot down in Naroda, allegedly when he opened
fire on cops. According to the Crime Branch he was an LeT operator conspiring
to target not only Modi but also L. K. Advani and Pravin Togadia. The
Indian Express, (Vadodara edition) on 19 June 2004 states that the slain
terrorist in this case was, according to Mumbai police, linked to Dawood
Ibrahim. As the Indian Express report states, "there is more than
one similarity in the three incidents. All needed the shooting down
some of the 'conspirators'; in all three cases the operators belonged
to terrorists outfits like Lashkar or Jaish and all encounters now remain
shrouded in a cloud of doubts." In the present conspiracy to kill
Modi, as mentioned earlier all that JCP Pandey had to say was that his
information was from a 'private source' that could not be revealed.
The TOI (Ahmedabad) reported on 17 June 2004, under the caption 'Police
draw out Dubai, Kashmir links of Assassins':
"The Crime
Branch maintained that the conspiracy to kill Modi was hatched by ISI
and LeT members in Pakistan. "However execution of the plot was
being supervised from Dubai", said sources. "It is too early
to say anything at this juncture", said additional CP (Crime) D.V.
Vanjara, when asked, if this plot was in any way linked to the several
'international conspiracies' busted by the sleuths so far."
Similarly, in Samir
Khan Pathan's case, there was no evidence of the conspiracy except the
confession of Pathan himself who was eliminated. The obvious question
that arises in the present context is as to why the Gujarat Crime Branch
in spite of this earlier experience made no attempt to apprehend at
least some of the 'terrorists' who were on their mission to kill Modi,
rather than eliminating all of them. If according to them, repeated
attempts are made by international agencies to kill Modi it is extremely
important and indeed in the interest of national security to arrest
some of the agents to gain detailed knowledge of the conspiracy.
There are several
contradictions in the police account:
· A photograph
published in Gujarat Samachar, a Gujarati daily, on 16.06.2004 with
the body of one of the 'terrorists' lying prostrate on the divider,
with his AK56 pointing in the opposite direction away from the police,
creates suspicion whether he had indeed come out of the car and fired
at the police. He appears to be holding the magazine of his AK56 in
a position from which, as per our enquires with experts, the gun cannot
fire. We were also informed that if the fellow was firing when he was
felled by a police bullet his hand could not be on the magazine. It
contradicts the police version that this 'terrorist' had come out of
the car and fired from his AK56.
· It is not
clearly explained why the other terrorist who was sitting on the right
side of the rear seat in Indica did not come out (which he could do
easily) when his colleague on the left could venture out and move on
the right side to take shelter behind the Indica. As the police saved
themselves by moving behind their Gypsy and firing from there, the terrorists
also could have done the same.
· Surprisingly,
Javed in driver's seat also had not jumped out of the car and chosen
to die in situ.
· From the
photograph published in Gujarat Samachar, it is clearly seen that Isharat
is killed in her sitting position while Javed lay on her lap. In the
mêlée when the police stopped their car by firing at the
tyre (as per the police version), all the inmates are expected to duck
within the car to protect themselves. Their positions do not speak well
of the police version.
· Taking
into account the direction from which the police fired at the Indica
(firing took place from only rear side), it is unlikely that the driver
would fall on the left side. Javed in the Gujarat Samachar photograph
lying prostrate with his head on the lap of Ishrat does not fit well
with the police version.
· The police
also do not appear to have followed normal procedure in the matter of
investigation. An FIR on a plain paper has been filed by PI, Crime Branch
J.G. Parmar and recorded by APC, Crime Branch, G. L. Singhal who himself
led one of the police teams in the encounter. No FIR has been lodged
with the local area police station where the killings took place. This
is the normal procedure recommended by the NHRC. When asked about this,
JPC Pandey said that as the entire city of Ahmedabad fell within his
jurisdiction, the complaint was lodged with the Crime Branch. He added
that he believed in, and practiced, 'pro-active policing' and took it
upon himself to investigate cases to prevent further crimes. This raises
certain questions regarding the power vested with the Crime Branch.
By whom are they authorized to carry out encounters? Are they not required
in law to take the permission of the local police, or at least coordinate
with them? The Crime Branch in Ahmedabad, which was earlier an investigating
agency with a DCP, has grown in recent years into a powerful parallel
police force with a JCP, 2ACPs and a number of Police Inspectors. Their
extraordinary and unilateral actions have apparently made them above
the law, they enjoy impunity and a great secrecy surrounds their actions.
· There has
been no charge sheet filed, no inquest report, and no statements of
witnesses in this case till date. If indeed they have found convincing
evidence to prove that the slain were terrorists they could be transparent
about it at least in passing it on to the forensic department, which
hasn't been done in this case.
PEOPLE'S VERSION
The place of the
'encounter' falls on the bypass road that connects the national highway
with Gandhinagar, and is near the Ahmedabad airport. Both sides of the
road where the encounter took place are completely desolate. One has
to walk some distance on either side to see human settlements. There
is a slum of around eighty families on the Kotarpur water works side
and a few families living in small houses, on the Gandhinagar side.
The fact-finding team visited both the areas. It was after much persuasion
that the people were ready to talk. The silence maintained by most of
them was itself a significant statement about their fear of the police.
The refrain "hamara bhi aisa hal ho jayega" (we will also
meet the same fate) was enough indication of the terror that had gripped
the area as well as the disbelief in the 'encounter' version propagated
by the police. What follows are statements of various persons (for obvious
reasons they did not want to be identified) whom the team met in these
slums and also in the nearby shops:
· At around
6 o' clock in the morning the police blocked both sides of the road
(coming from and going to Gandhinagar). There were around ten police
vans and a police mobile van and about 40 to 50 policemen. The people
who passed by the encounter spot said that there were no bodies on the
divider at that time.
· Those who
saw the sight after 7 a.m. said that they saw three people killed inside
the vehicle and one body with a gun lying on the divider The car carrying
the dead bodies had its rear side smashed.
· By 7.30
a.m. all the four dead bodies were displayed on the road, near the Indica.
· Some people
said that they heard the sound of firing intermittently, and not continuously,
for some time.
· One person
who had seen the dead bodies said that Ishrat had been fired on the
neck and Javed on the temple. This could have been possible only with
close range firing. Amajadali Akbarali alias Salim who had supposedly
stepped out of the car, had sustained 20 to 25 bullet injuries.
· The team
members saw some blood marks on the divider.
Some people told
us that the encounter death of Latif, which had struck the headlines,
had also happened in this area and that the desolateness of the area
made it a suitable place for fake encounters. Also all the encounter
killings have taken place in the early morning, in the dark, when no
witnesses, except for the policemen, are present. The people were convinced
that it was cold-blooded murder. On being asked as to what made them
think so, they cited absence of any visible damage to the police car
and the absence of injury to the policemen as the main reasons. According
to them, if the slain had powerful weapons like AK 56, they would have
certainly shot some of the policemen. Some believed that all the four
were brought to the spot with their hands tied up and shot dead on the
spot.
The above version
of the people in the area certainly reinforces the suspicion of the
police version.
MEDIA AND OTHER
REPORTS
The media reports
on the incidents by and large were flooded with stories regarding Ishrat
and Javed. Some of them focused on the terrorist links or otherwise
of the two, and that of Ishrat in particular. However there have been
reports, which have directly or indirectly brought out the lacunas in
the police version and even posed serious questions to it. It is not
only the genuineness of the encounter story that is questioned but everything
related to it. The lack of conclusive evidence to establish the identity
of the two 'Pakistanis' in order to lend credence to the 'Modi assassination
conspiracy theory' and also to suggest terrorist links of the slain,
has made it impossible for even those who may otherwise approve of death
penalty for terrorists to swallow the police version even with a pinch
of salt. How can one take at face value the claim of Mr. P.P. Pandey
that ''although there are no photographs of the accused we had got detailed
description of the accused''? (TOI, ahmedabad dated 16.06.2004). Obviously
the claim about information from a private source regarding the specific
plot to kill Modi is in sharp contrast with the fact that Gujarat police
was searching for evidence outside the state after the encounter.
The newspaper reports
also point to the possibility of an 'encounter' premeditated by the
police, thus suggesting the political nature of the police action. Was
it all pre planned? The question might be embarrassing to the Gujarat
Crime Branch. But the fact that the TOI (Ahmedabad edition) on 16 June
2004, carried a news item under a seven-column caption, "Many had
anticipated Crime Branch pre rath yatra exploit" suggested that
there was a strong fear that something might happen during this time.
The TOI report states:
"When the Ahmedabad
crime branch gunned down four alleged LeT militants in the wee hours
of Tuesday not many were surprised. A word had begun doing the rounds
since a fortnight that the crime branch had something up its sleeve.
The rumours got stronger last week although crime branch JCP, P.P. Pandey
persistently denied having any persons in custody and laughed off rumours
of his sleuths pulling off something spectacular".
After recalling
the incidents of the 'Modi assassination conspiracy' in the past, the
report goes on to describe the present 'encounter':
"The Tuesday
one however is the most dramatic and interesting, coming at a time when
Modi is facing opposition from several quarters including the BJP. The
rath yatra of Lord Jagannath is an annual festival in Gujarat that attracts
thousands of devotees. The rumour regarding the impending actions from
the police was connected to this festival."
The report also
mentions that the 'terrorist' vehicle contained among other things coconuts
dipped in chemicals, packets of explosives and Urdu literature that
according to the police version was meant to give instructions regarding
making explosives. Whether the possession of such articles suggests
an intention to throw coconuts with explosives on the rath yatra crowd
or to assassinate Modi is only a matter of speculation. Perhaps Vajpayee's
remark about Modi's removal forced the police to change the 'disruption
of Rath yatra' narrative into the 'Modi assassination conspiracy' narrative.
There are also indications that there is disbelief in the police circle
itself about the 'Modi assassination plot'.
TOI in a report
on 17 June 2004 said: ''Senior officials in Gandhinagar expressed doubts
about the mission and said it appeared a case of disrupting the rath
yatra more than anything else, 'but after Akshardham we are willing
to believe the worst', they said." Similarly Indian Express, (Vadodara
edition) 16 June 2004 reported, JCP, Mumbai Satyapal Singh expressing
doubt about the incident: "Were they (the terrorists) from Mumbai?
We did not have any information. They should have informed us. We are
trying to identify the woman and also the owner of the car, who they
say has a Mumbai connection."
Regarding the diaries
found with the deceased, the report of the TOI dated 21 June 2004, titled
''handwriting in Ishrat's diary yet to be ascertained'', (referring
to the photocopies of the Ishrat's diary distributed to the media by
the police), says:
"Providing
photocopies of some pages of the diary to the media, the crime Branch
officials claim that Ishrat had herself noted down details of the places
she and Javed Shaikh of Pune had been to and about the expenditures
made or cash received from unknown sources. Analysts however wonder
how does the Crime Branch know that the diary indeed bears Ishrat's
handwriting when she was killed the moment she entered Ahmedabad? Even
the directorate of forensic science is yet to examine the diary''.
The same report
also points out that the claims of having the names of all VIP targets
and their code names in the diary when they were allegedly on an assassination
mission also appear strange. The report remarks: ".... And when
code names for targets are used why is their equivalent full name carried
in the same diary?''.
Another report in
the TOI on 18 June 2004 (Ahmedabad edition) under the title ''Close
encounters: Daya Nayak has competition here'' suggests a police network
operating behind these encounters. It says that ever since the post-Godhra
riots, eight persons have been gunned down in four encounters and in
all the four encounters, ''the fingers on the triggers'' have belonged
to the same few - Tarun Barot, Jai singh Parmar, I. A. Sayeed and Kishore
Singh Vaghela, all 'star' inspectors of the Ahmedabad Crime Branch.
According to the report Samir Khan Pathan, the accused in one of the
Modi murder plot met his end at the hands of Vaghela. Sadiq Mehttar,
the accused in another Modi murder plot was killed by Parmar, Sayeed
and Vaghela. In the 'encounter' before Rath yatra in June 2003, where
the police had alleged a conspiracy to kill the Gujarat law Minister
and an MLA, two persons Ganesh Khunte and Mahendra Jadhav were gunned
down by Tarun Barot, Sayeed and Mahendra Parmar besides Mavani, and
C. J. Goswami. The report concludes:
''No prizes for
guessing who starred in Tuesday's dramatic chase ***** encounter. You
got it - Barot, Parmar,Vaghela and Goswami, who is now an inspector''.
The involvement of the same police personnel in all the encounters might
be accidental according to officials but leaves everyone else bewildered."
An independent enquiry
report, carried out by Indian Peoples' Tribunal headed by Justice Daud,
retired judge of Bombay High Court and titled "In the name of development?"
on the struggle against the proposed Maroli-Umbargaon port project in
Gujarat had indicted Narendra Ameen of the custodial death of Col. Pratap
Save. We reproduce the relevant extract form the report:
"'on 7th april
, the state reserve police was brought into Umbergaon to assist the
consortium of NATELCO and UNOCAL corporation to conduct the survey for
the proposed port. The peaceful protest of the locals was respoded to
by a lathi charge, tear gas shells and indiscriminate arrests. 48 persons
including 18 women were arrested and locked up in the Umbergaon police
station and 6 of the men were brutally beaten in the presence of the
Hasmukh Patel, the district superintendent of police and Dr. Narendra
Amin, deputy superintendent of police bulsar district. False cases were
filed against those arrested. They were ultimately released on bail
by the magistrate's court at Pardi on 8th april 2000 only to be detained
again under section 107 of Criminal procedure code for another 24 hours
at Umbergaon police station.
We are informed
that Lt. Colonel Pratap Save was picked up from his residence at Dehri
at 1.00 a.m. on 8 April 2000 and was ruthlessly beaten by Dy. SP Narendra
Ameen (a certified doctor) at the Umbergaon Police Station soon thereafter.
The beating of Lt. Col. Pratap Save was in the presence of the other
arrested activists. Due to the injuries sustained during the beating
Lt. Col. Pratap Save suffered brain hemorrhage and fell into coma. The
Police shifted him to Jav Seva Hospital at Vapi knowing fully well that
the hospital would be unable to give the needed treatment. His family
then rushed him to the Hinduja Hospital, Bombay where he underwent an
emergency operation on 9 April 2000 and was operated upon again on 12
April 2000. Lt. Col. Pratap Save passed away on 20 April 2000."
The above reports
pertinently raise the following points:
· Since there
were already rumours in Ahmedabad that something spectacular would happen
during the Jagannath rath yatra, the police version of this encounter
appears incredible. There was an element of pre-meditation and political
influence in this incident.
· This incident
falls well within the pattern formed by the earlier such incidents inasmuch
as police encounter always takes place at a desolate spot in the wee
hours when there will be no possibility of any independent verification;
police always firing in self defence and landing up killing all the
terrorists but not getting a scratch in return.
· The dramatis
persona in this incident also has been the same as in the earlier such
incidents.
· The police
always finding diaries on the bodies of slain terrorists, who are supposed
to be on dangerous mission like killing VIPs, with their biographical
details in order to back justify their action.
FACTS ABOUT ISHRAT:
THE FACE OF THE ENCOUNTER
Our team (Gopal,
Haridas and Anand) visited Mumbra on June 27, 2004 to collect facts
about Ishrat Jahan Shaikh, a college girl from Mumbra, who became a
face of this encounter. There was a condolence meeting organized in
a hall of Sumaiya High school. Most people including the family of Isharat
Jahan were to come there and hence we were straight conducted to the
hall. The hall with capacity of 1000 overflowed with people.
Abdul Rauf Lala,
a local social worker and one of the persons who accompanied Ishrat's
mother to Ahmedabad to bring Ishrat's body met the team in the office
of Mr. Saad Salil Said, chairman of the Trust that runs the Sumaiya
High School. He described Ishrat as a poor, innocent, sincere, and studious
girl. They were so poor that when two years ago Ishrat's father died,
they did not have money to perform even his last rites. The community
people in Rashid Compound where they lived collected donations to cremate
him. Her younger brother Anwar could not take SSC examination because
he did not have money to pay the fees. They have not paid rent for their
house for the last six months. Ishrat and her younger sister Mushrat,
who herself is studying in 12th standard this year, have been taking
tuitions to support the family of seven. If she was working with terrorists
for money, or received the kind of sum (Rs. 9 lakhs) as the Gujarat
police claimed, the condition of her family would not be so pathetic.
Mr. Lala told us
that the Crime Branch Police, Thane conducted raid at her house and
took away everything connected with her but could not find any thing
to suspect her involvement in any illegal nefarious activities. They
had even gone public on TV confirming it. It is only with her alleged
links with Javed as per the Gujarat Police that her otherwise clean
image is being tarnished. "How can one believe the Police of Gujarat,
whom even the Supreme Court had to castigate in an unprecedented manner",-
he remarked.
He narrated the
story about how they were treated by Ahmedabad Police when they went
to claim the body of Ishrat. He said that their visit was seemingly
coordinated by the ACP (Crime Branch), Thane and none other than the
people like R. R. Patil, Home Minister and Rajendra Darda had assured
them that there would not be any problem with them at Ahmedabad. However,
when they reached the Police - they were treated as though they were
criminals. Ishrat's mother was immediately taken to a room where five
officers interrogated her for nearly three hours. When Adv. Shakeb Khan
pleaded with Police that he was her advocate and he had to accompany
her as his client, he was still not allowed. Police told him that Gujarat
law was different. They were not allowed to go out for eating or their
Friday namaz. The gun trotting policemen always surrounded them and
even accompanied them to TOIlet. When the media persons collected around
them after Ishrat's mother came out, they were warned not to talk to
media. When they were made to speak by the mediamen they started physically
obstructing them to the extent that media people had to clash with Police.
When they demanded
post mortem report, they were first made to shuttle between the Police
to hospital. Eventually, they were made to submit an application and
assured that the report would be given within 15 days. Adv. Shakeb Khan
and Munna Sahil, who had also gone to Ahmedabad talked to us confirming
these details independently.
We met Asad Ullah
Khan, who ran Unique Tuition Classes where Ishrat had worked as tutor.
He narrated to us that after passing her SSC from Abdullah Patel High
School, Ishrat was appointed as tutor to teach 8th standard student
at the salary of Rs. 600/-. She had to come in the morning from 7.15
a.m. to 10.00 a.m. and some times in the evening from 3.00 p.m. to 6.00
p.m. She did this for one year during her 11th standard. During her
12th standard, she taught his own children in 4th and 5th standards
in the evening after 7 pm. at his house. This she did up to 2002. In
2002 her father died.
We met with Ishrat's
family, her mother, elder sister, younger brother and a sister, to know
the precise sequence of events around Ishrat's leaving home on Saturday,
the 12th June, 2004. Ishrat's mother told us that Rashid Ansari came
to their house and told that there was a good job for Ishrat during
the vacation period. Ishrat was on look out for a job during the summer
vacation when there were no tuitions, which was the source of income
for the family. This job was organized by his friend Javed. The job
involved staying away from home at times. Her mother permitted Ishrat
to take up this job and she had gone to Lucknow two times presumably
for this job. Ishrat had told them that the people were good Muslims
and the job was easy involving accounts keeping for marketing of some
product. They would pay her Rs. 3500. On all these earlier occasions
she would phone them up after reaching her destination. She had stayed
with some family in Lucknow. On June 12, she had received a call and
she told her mother that she would go out for two to three days. At
around 11.00 a.m. she left home, with her purse and few clothes in a
plastic bag. Unlike earlier times, they did not receive any call from
her and were already worried. They only came to know that she was killed
in an encounter through Police on 16th afternoon.
On enquiring why
she said to the media that she did not know Javed for the first time
whereas subsequently admitted that she knew him, Ishrat's mother replied
that she did not know him distinctly but later on she could recollect
him working with her husband. She had left Mumbra sometime back and
thereafter she did not know much about him. Her children however did
not know him.
We met Ibrahim Khalid
Abidi, who was General Secretary of Tanzime Walidaen (Organization of
Parents), which extends tuitions and scholarship to poor students and
medical help to needy in Mumbai. He is also a Joint Secretary of Khair-e-Unmat,
the trust that runs Tanzime Walidaen. His relation with this case was
that Ishrat was one of the 270 teachers they appointed to tutor the
5th standard students, identified by them as the crucial standard where
the drop rates of students is alarmingly high. Every teacher was assigned
some 10 students in his or her area. Ishrat also had her students to
be tutored from 4 to 6 p.m. in Mumbra and received Rs. 700 per month
for the same. Mr. Abidi told us that they selected their teachers on
the criterion of their sincerity, commitment, apart from their academic
capabilities. He said that Ishart was very punctual, regular and committed.
He offered us his attendance registers and interviews with the students
to verify.
Jalud Ali, who taught
Ishrat in the municipal school, told us that Ishrat was consistently
a good student. She was socially conscious and wanted to help students.
She took part in co-curricular activities and had regularly participated
in school dramas etc. He told us that Ishrat had also approached him
for some computer related job during the summer vacation as she did
not have income from tuition.
We met Asadullah
Hanshi, a freelance reporter who had some information connected with
this incident which was reportedly carried in Thane Plus, a local supplement
of the Times of India. He said that he received information from his
source that a Gypsy from Gujarat police was parked in Mumbra police
station on Saturday (12.06.04) at around 12.00 pm. The inmates had gone
with a local police looking for someone. His informer next reported
to him that the vehicle had left around mid night that day. He said
that this information raises a cloud of suspicion whether Ishrat was
taken by Gujarat police.
We went to Mumbra
police station and met with the officer-in-charge Mr. Bhagatsingh Pardeshi,
Sr. PI to check this information. Mr. Pardeshi said that the Mumbra
police station did not have anything to do with this incident and it
is being dealt directly with Thane Crime Branch. He denied that Gujarat
police had visited Mumbra police station on 12th. He also said that
Mumbra police station did not have any information on Ishrat, however
there were five cases against Javed whom he called Tapori, a hooligan
in the colloquial language.
The above information
the team gathered points to the following:
· Ishrat
was a sincere and studious girl who conducted herself with exemplary
responsibility as a major contributor to the sustenance of her family.
She flogged herself with tiring schedule of tuitions and studies in
all of which she was very regular and punctual.
· Her family
with a widowed mother and six siblings was indeed very poor.
· She was
in search of job during the summer vacation as there was no income available
from tuitions.
While these facts
do not necessarily prove that she was not involved in any 'underground'
activities but they circumstantially cry out for the proof of the crime
for which she is punished with death.
The recent disclosures
about a website allegedly associated with LeT owning her up as their
martyr, is also not a proof enough for her involvement. The organizations
like LeT with professed communal objectives can only profit by owning
up any such victims as its own martyrs. Moreover, like the identity
of the Pakistani terrorists, the veracity of this website is far from
established.
CONCLUSION
Based on the visit
to the spot of the incident, interaction with the people in the surrounding
area, discussion with journalists, interview with JCP P.P. Pandey and
the media reports the team found that there were several contradictions
in the police account of the 'encounter'.
According to the
police, only one 'terrorist' had stepped out of the car and there was
only one AK 56 and two pistols found among the four of them. It is indeed
surprising that about 20 member strong two police teams which had surrounded
the car and were well armed with AK 47 rifles and several revolvers
could not capture any of them. The use of force by the police has to
be commensurate with the force used by the opposite group, which does
not seem to be the case in this incident. This raises doubts about their
intentions which seem to be directly eliminating the accused, instead
of subjecting them to the due process of law for punishing the guilty.
If, on the other
hand, the terrorists are said to have fired 42 rounds at the police
teams, as the police claim, how is it possible that there were no injuries
or bullet marks on a single policeman? The absence of injury suffered
by the policemen makes it difficult to establish their claim that they
fired at the terrorists in self-defence.
The identity of
the two who are described as Pakistanis has not yet been established.
There seems to be no serious attempt made by the police to do so. The
police did not even possess their photographs and claim to have identified
them as LeT terrorists through their description. They have also not
flashed their pictures in newspapers or on television in order that
they may be identified.
The terrorist links
of Ishrat and Javed have not been established till date. At least the
information on Ishrat collected from the team does not corroborate with
the police version. The recent statement by an LeT news agency as reported
in Indian Express, Delhi, of 15 July 2004 that Ishrat had LeT links
has been dismissed by Ishrat's family and their lawyer as mischief of
Gujarat police. Such websites can be created and launched by any child
everyday. Genuineness of the website apart, the team does not consider
LeT's owning up Ishrat as its martyr as sufficient to establish that
she indeed was linked with LeT.
Since the encounter
took place early in the morning, in the dark, there were no eyewitnesses
apart from the police. No bullet marks or damages were observed on the
road or the divider. It is inconceivable that AK 56 bullets from terrorist
or AK47 bullets from police firing would not stray and hit the nearby
objects.
As in all cases
in recent times the 'diary' of the dead is being produced as major evidence
for justifying the police action. This is done before confirming that
these diaries were actually those of the slain, and establishing under
what circumstances they were written. It is incredible that people on
an assassination mission would have carried with them such diaries.
It is even more incredible that such diaries would have the names of
VIPs, whom they intended to target along with the code names they use
secretly.
The names of the
police personnel involved in the earlier encounters of Gujarat figure
in the present case also. It only reinforces the pattern this 'encounter'
forms with the earlier similar incidents.
One of the courts
in Gujarat had dismissed a case of 'Modi Assasination' due to lack of
evidence and acquitted 13 persons as the person on whose confession
the conspiracy theory was based had died in encounter. Logically in
the present case attempts should have been made to capture the 'terrorists'
alive so that the conspiracy could be laid bare. It was moreover necessary
in the context of repeated attempts of this terrorist organization to
assassinate Modi as Gujarat police themselves claim. Why the Gujarat
police did not even attempt to capture the terrorist alive remains a
mystery.
Taking cognizance
of the contradictions between police version, information given by people
that further contradicts the police version, suspicions expressed by
the media, and general context of the case, there is sufficient ground
to believe that the encounter was fake. It does not appear improbable
as some people told us that the four deceased were already in the police
custody and were taken to that desolate place in the dead of night to
be shot dead.
The normal process
in law has not been observed by the police in the matter of investigation.
Investigation has been carried out by the same police officials who
led the encounter. Attention has been confined to the conduct of the
deceased and not to that of the police who had conducted the encounter
and caused the deaths. The police do not possess an unchartered right
to kill any person with impunity. However, no case has been filed against
the police personnel who led the encounter and caused the death of four
persons.
WE DEMAND
1. A case should
be registered under IPC Sec. 302 in the present incident against the
police personnel involved in the incident as per the NHRC guidelines.
NHRC guidelines passed in 1996 state that in any encounter, death caused
by the police is a cognizable offence. Right to self-defence cannot
be presumed. Therefore, a case should be filed against the police personnel
involved in the encounter killing and they should defend their case
that they acted in self defence later. Even in the case of Samir Khan
Pathan where all his co-accused were acquitted, the Gujarat police had
not taken any action against the guilty police officials who arrested
them in the first place. We demand that a similar case should be immediately
registered under IPC Sec. 302 against the police personnel involved
even in that incident.
2. As a part of
reassurance to the public, the police personnel responsible for the
killing in the present incident should be immediately suspended.
3. An independent
judicial enquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge should be ordered
to investigate the present incident.
4. NHRC should commission
a thorough enquiry by some independent agency into all the earlier encounter
killings by the Gujarat police against the 'Modi assassination conspiracy'
and establish the identity of those killed.
5. The enquiry reports
on the present incident as well as on the earlier incidents as per the
demand in 3 and 4 above should be made public. The state should make
available all information regarding the incident so as to reassure the
public on the genuineness of the actions of the Gujarat police whose
image is already sullied by its partisan role in the pot-Godhra carnage.