PRESS RELEASE JUSTICE NANAVATI SHAH COMMISSION REPORT ON GODHRA 27 September, 2008 THE CONTEXT The Justice Nanavati Shah Commission submitted the first part of its report on Godhra to Chief Minister Narendra Modi on 18 September, 2008. A week later, the report was tabled in the assembly on 25 September, 2008. Among its findings, the report states ‐ 1) that the burning of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002 was a pre‐planned conspiracy, not a spontaneous act of mob fury 2) that Godhra‐based Maulvi Umarji had hatched the conspiracy and, 3) that 140 litres of petrol was procured by three of the accused – Jabir Behra, Rajjak Kurkur and Salim Panwala ‐‐ from a local petrol pump the day before the tragedy and taken away in containers. This was then used to burn Coach S‐6. The Commission also gives a clean chit to Narendra Modi and his administration saying there is no evidence “of an lapse in providing protection, relief and rehabilitation to victims of the communal riots…” TEHELKA’S INVESTIGATION Tehelka had conducted an exhaustive investigation in 2007 on the Godhra incident and the communal pogrom that followed. While its findings on the State’s collusion with the pogrom are well known, its painstaking investigation on the Godhra incident is equally damning and completely demolishes four of the police’s key witnesses. It also pieces together in great detail the way in which the police manufactured evidence to prove a Muslim conspiracy.
Tehelka’s investigation raises extremely serious questions about the Nanavati Report. In fact, many of the government and police witnesses caught on its camera ‐‐ including BJP corporators and the Gujarat State counsel Arvind Pandya ‐‐ contradicts the report in very significant ways. THE BUYING OF 140 LITRES OF PETROL What the Nanavati Report claims: ‐ The Sabarmati Express was burned with 140 litres of petrol procured by Jabir Bahera, Rajjak Kurkur and Salim Panwala from a local petrol pump the day before the tragedy and taken away in containers. It cites their police confession to further state that this petrol was used to burn Coach 6. What Tehelka found: ‐‐ Jabir Bahera, the police witness who named Maulvi Umarji as the main mastermind and claimed to have bought 140 litres of petrol with other hawkers on February 26, 2002 later retracted his statement. ‐‐ Sikandar Siddik, another police witness, had corroborated Jabir Bahera’s statement. He had also named another religious head Yakub Punjabi for inciting the mob at Godhra. It turned out that Punjabi was not even in the country on that day. ‐‐ Even more damning: The police case relied heavily on the testimonies of two prime witnesses ‐‐ petrol pump salesmen, Ranjitsingh Patel and Prabhatsingh Patel. At first, they had said they did not sell any loose petrol either on the day of the tragedy or the evening before. Later, they changed their statement and said they had sold 140 litres to Muslim hawkers. They now live under 24/7 police vigil. Shockingly, Tehelka caught Ranjitsingh Patel on sting camera admitting that the chief investigating officer Noel Parmar had paid both him and Prabhatsingh Patel Rs 50,000 each to change their statement and falsely identify some Muslims as conspirators. Ranjitsingh said to Tehelka: “Noel Saheb gave me fifty thousand, showed me a photograph and said I had to identify him” (Full transcript attached)
PRE‐PLANNED CONSPIRACY What the Nanavati Report claims: ‐ The Sabarmati Express was burned as the result of a pre‐planned Muslim conspiracy What Tehelka found: A) MALAFIDE COLLUSION ‐‐ The police case and conspiracy argument is built on the testimonies of nine BJP “eye‐witnesses”, some of them important party functionaries. Between them, these nine men jointly “identified” 41 Muslims from Godhra town as being part of the mob. They also claimed to have seen the assembling of the mob, the sharp‐edged weapons and inflammable material it was carrying, and the actual setting of the fire itself. Curiously, all nine statements were absolutely identical. ‐‐ Among these nine BJP “eye‐witnesses” were Kakul Pathak and Murli Mulchandani. At the time of the investigation, Kakul Pathak was the convenor of the media cell in Godhra and its Taluka Pancjayat delegate. Murli Mulchandani was the Vice‐President of the Godhra Municipal Council.) ‐‐ In shocking disclosures that completely damn the police’s case, Tehelka caught both Kakul Pathak and Murli Mulchandani on camera admitting that far from being eye‐witnesses, they were not even at the station that morning. ‐‐ What Kakul Pathak told Tehelka: None of the nine BJP men were present that morning: In fact Pathak did not even know the police had made him a witness and put out a statement in his name. But when he did get to know, he backed them and identified two people in a police parade whom he knew to be innocent, saying, “Yeh Hindutva ka kaam hai. Joh party bolegi who karne ka ha.” According to him, “The police gave all the names,” he said, “None of the eye witnesses wrote their statements. The police did.” (Transcript attached) ‐‐ What Murli Mulchandani to Tehelka: “I wasn’t at the station that morning, I was sleeping at home. But the police put my name among the eye witnesses.” He too said that he went along with this lie happily because he could not betray the Hindutva cause. In fact, he complained bitterly about Dilip Dasadiya, one of the other BJP men who had later retracted his statement. (Transcript attached)
B) COERCION ‐‐ The police case also relied on the accounts of two Muslim hawkers – Illias Hussain and Anwar Kalandar, who claimed they had turned the discs and stopped the Sabarmati Express from inside to abet the arson. Both have since retracted their statements by filing affidavits in the Supreme Court. ‐‐ Illias also told Tehelka that they were illegally detained for two weeks and tortured by chief investigating officer, Noel Parmar. “Every night the cops would come and put a log of wood on my legs and then walk over it”. Kalandhar said, “I was given electric shocks on my genitals.” Both claim they were made to memorise statements handed to them by the police. C) FABRICATION ‐‐ The first forensic report had effectively demolished the police and State’s contention that Coach S‐6 was burnt by inflammable liquid either thrown in through broken windows or sprinkled outside the coach. A second theory was later floated that the coach was burnt because of petrol thrown along its floor. This was based on the statement of three karsevaks. ‐‐ Significantly, in their first statements, these three karsevaks – Nitinbhai Patel, Dineshbhai Patel and Rambhai Patel – had said they had seen nothing because they had fainted due to the smoke. Three months later, in an astonishing volteface, they said they saw petrol being poured on the floor of the coach from the Godhra side. Needless to say, all three statements were identically phrased. MAULVI UMARJI – ALLEGED MASTERMIND What the Nanavati Report claims: ‐‐ Going along with the police and Gujarat government theory, the Nanavati Report claims Maulvi Umarji, a highly regarded religious figure in Godhra, was the key mastermind behind the Sabarmati Express fire. What Tehelka found: ‐‐ The allegations against Maulvi Umarji rest on two statements by Jabir bin Bahera and Sikandar Siddik. ‐‐ Maulvi Umarji was not present at the site during the incident. ‐‐ Significantly, Bahera later retracted his statement against Umarji. ‐‐ Siddik too proved himself to be entirely unreliable. He had named Maulvi Umarji as well as Maulvi Yakub Punjabi as men who incited the mob. It turned out Punjabi wasn’t even in the country on that day.
CREDIBILITY OF JUSTICE NANAVATI CAST INTO DOUBT BY GUJARAT STATE COUNSEL Arvind Pandya, the special public prosecutor appointed by the Narendra Modi government to defend it before the Nanavati–Shah Commission, was caught on hidden camera, boasting about Narendra Modi’s collusion in the riots, as well as other judges’ sympathy towards the riot accused he was defending. Among other things, Pandya told Tehleka that during the riots Modi had given oral instructions to the police “to be with Hindus.” (This has been corroborated by several affidavits filed by ADGP, Intelligence, RB Sreekumar in the Nanavati Commission itself. Several other BJP / VHP / Bajrang Dal functionaries also spoke openly to the Tehelka undercover reporter about the Chief Minister, police and state’s collusion in the riots.) Pandya goes on to say he personally believed the mass killing of Muslims in Gujarat should be celebrated every year as “victory day”. That apart, he made a damning statement about both Justice Nanavati Shah and Justice KG Shah, which should honourably should have led to their resignations. Excerpt from the conversation: Tehelka: So is Nanavati absolutely against you people? Pandya: Nanavati is a clever man… He wants money… Of the two judges, KG Shah is intelligent – who apna wala hai (he is our man)… he is sympathetic to us… Nanavati is after money…