Tehelka lies
TEHELKA EXPOSED
This book was written six months before weekly Tehelka broadcast a sting operation. But after the sting operation of Tehelka, it has become necessary to write about it, and show how the sting operation is nothing but an attempt to convict an innocent man- i.e. Narendra Modi and the Gujarat government- and is of no value at all.
The website www.rediff.com reported on 25 October 2007-
“Gujarat riots a genocide; Modi sanctioned it: Tehelka
Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Investigative weekly Tehelka on Thursday claimed to have unraveled the truth behind the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Tehelka claimed it had ‘irrefutable’ evidence that the killings of Muslims post-Godhra train carnage in Gujarat was ‘not a spontaneous swell of anger but a genocide’ planned and executed by top functionaries of the Sangh Parivar and state authorities ‘with the sanction’ of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Tehelka Editor-in-Chief Tarun Tejpal claimed that the magazine had carried out a sting operation over the last six months by talking to a number of Sangh Parivar leaders, including Godhra BJP MLA Haresh Bhatt, Shiv Sena leader Babu Bajrangi, who was earlier in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and VHP leaders Anil Patel and Dhawal Jayanti Patel, to bring out the truth.
“We have evidence that bombs were being made in the VHP office premises,” Harinder Baweja, Editor (Investigations), told rediff.com.
“After three days, he (Modi) asked to stop and everything came to a halt,” Bhatt said, adding that the chief minister thanked them after the Naroda Patiya massacre.
The magazine claimed that Dhawal Jayanti Patel told its undercover reporter that the VHP activists made lots of bombs in a factory owned by him. A BJP MLA was shown as saying they even made rocket launchers, which were used in the pogrom.
It also claimed that it has exposed ‘a trail of lies and coercions’ that establishes the fire in coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002 was a case of spontaneous mob fury and not a pre-meditated conspiracy as stated by the Gujarat government.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/oct/25godhra.htm”
Tarun Tejpal, editor of the weekly Tehelka wrote in Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 44, Dated Nov 17, 2007-
“…This time — with our investigation into the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 — the conspiracy-seekers scaled new heights. While the BJP attacked us for working for the Congress, the Congress spread the word that we were working for the BJP! Clearly we were doing something right. In all this the battle for the idea of India was left to Laloo Yadav, Mayawati and the Left. The Congress one presumes knows the phrase — since its forebears literally coined it — but they can’t anymore seem to remember what it means.
It’s extraordinary that more than a week after the Gujarat massacre exposé, the prime minister and the home minister had not made a single statement. For the first time in the history of journalism, mass murderers were on camera telling us how they killed, why they killed, and with whose permission they did it. Nor were these just petty criminals; these were fanatics, ideologically driven, working the most dangerous faultline of the subcontinent, revealing the truth of a perilous rupture fully capable of tearing this country apart. But that was clearly not enough for the good man of Race Course Road. Had the CII burped loudly, the PMO would have issued a clarification. Had they then organised a seminar on the untimely burp, the prime minister would have addressed it.
It may be unfair to pillory the prime minister, a man given responsibility without power, the honest man sitting atop a dishonest hillock. Let us then look at the grand strategists of the Congress who cannot win an election themselves but know the secret of winning elections for the many. On their perverse abacus, exposing Modi’s hand in bestial murders and rapes was designed to convince the Gujarati Hindu that this is precisely the kind of leadership it wanted! It never struck them that they could use the evidence of violence to shape a stirring dialogue against it.
THE FACT is the Congress is today run by petty strategists who no longer know what it is to do the right thing. They possess neither the illuminations of history, nor a vision for the future. They fail to see that once great men sutured a hundred fault-lines — of caste, religion, race, language, class — to create the idea of India out of a diverse, colonised, feudal subcontinent. Foolishly they preside over the reopening of these fault-lines, unable to see the chaos that will ensue. They do not know how to wield morality as a weapon in politics, and they lack the courage to walk any high road. At best they are vote accountants who waver between the profit and the loss of various elections.
The present Congress brings grief to the liberal, secular, democratic Indian who needs a political umbrella under which to wage the civilisational battle for India’s soul. By not saying the right thing, by not doing the right thing, it weakens the resolve of the decent Indian, who lacks the stomach for conflict and seeks affirmation of his decency. The vacated space is then colonised by poisonous ideologies based on exclusion and a garbled — pseudo-religious, pseudo-historic — hunt for identity…”
Tarun Tejpal’s statement should not let anyone be fooled into thinking that the Congress was not behind the Tehelka sting. The Congress could well be behind it. Tarun Tejpal in this same article had bemoaned the legal action taken against Tehelka by the erstwhile NDA government. If he reads this chapter fully- Tarun Tejpal will thank his stars that the BJP or Narendra Modi- or any of the accused on camera have not sued Tehelka and him for damages worth 100 crore rupees.
Now, let us get into the details of the so-called confessions of the people caught on camera. First we should all remember the context in which this sting operation was conducted. Tehelka reporter Ashish Khetan visited the people he caught on secret camera- and presented himself as an author aiming to write a book from the VHP point of view. He talked casually to these people on the riots- without telling them that the conversations were being recorded. This background will help a lot of people understand how these so-called confessions are boastful lies.
The ethics and morality of this sting operation are also questionable. Actually- those caught on camera can sue Tehelka for violation of privacy- because what was supposed to be a private conversation was made public- through deceit- the correspondent claimed to an author aiming to write a book on the Hindutva school of thought.
However, even assuming that the ethics of this sting operation were all right, let us see the details of the ‘confessions’. Here is what Babu Bajrangi- an accused in the riots said about Narendra Modi-
“AUGUST 10, 2007
TEHELKA: The day Patiya happened, didn’t Modi support you?
Bajrangi: They were very much in control all over the city, all over Gujarat… [But] for two days, Narendrabhai was in control…from the third day… a lot of pressure came from the top… Sonia-wonia and all came here…
Bajrangi: If Narendrabhai comes to meet me, he’ll be in deep trouble… I didn’t expect to see him… Even today, I don’t expect it…
TEHELKA: Did he ever talk to you over the phone?
Bajrangi: That way I do get to speak to him… but not just like that… The whole world starts singing…
TEHELKA: But when you were absconding, then he…..
Bajrangi: Hmm… I did speak to him twice or thrice…
TEHELKA: He’d encourage you…
Bajrangi: Marad aadmi hai [he’s a real man], Narendrabhai… If he were to tell me to tie a bomb to myself and jump… it wouldn’t take even a second… I could sling a bomb around me and jump wherever I was asked to… for Hindus…
TEHELKA: Had he not been there, then Naroda Patiya, Gulbarg etc…
TEHELKA: Did Narendrabhai come to Patiya the day of the massacre?
Bajrangi: Narendrabhai had come to see that things didn’t stop the next day… He went all around Ahmedabad, to all the places where the miyas [Muslims] were, to the Hindu areas… told people they’d done well and should do more…
• • •
Bajrangi: [After the massacre] the commissioner issued orders [against me]… I was told to leave my home… I ran away… Narendrabhai kept me at… the Gujarat Bhavan at Mount Abu for four and- a-half months… After that, [I did] whatever Narendrabhai told me to… Nobody can do what Narendrabhai has done in - Gujarat
(Courtesy: The official website of Tehelka for all the interview texts)
Now see his statement-“For two days they were in control”. This is a blatantly false statement- a boastful lie. We have seen in this book already that ‘The Hindu’- the leading most English daily of South India and a bitter critic of Narendra Modi- had reported on 2nd March 2002 that- “Unlike February 28 when one
community was entirely at the receiving end, the minority backlash on March 1 has further worsened the situation.”
This clearly shows that the Muslims were on the offensive on the second day of the riots. The Hindus or Narendra Modi weren’t at all in ‘complete control’. His statement that the police didn’t do anything is another lie. The Hindu reported on 1st
March 2002- “(On Feb 28) At least 10 people were believed to have been killed in police firing by evening (in Ahmedabad alone)”. Uday Mahurkar also wrote in weekly India Today dated 18 March 2002 that the police shot dead 5 Hindus outside Ehsan Jafri’s house in Gulbarg locality on Feb 28 in Ahmedabad.
Babu Bajrangi also says that Narendra Modi came to Naroda Patiya on the day of the massacre- i.e. February 28. But the official records show that Narendra Modi did not visit that place that day. Uday Mahurkar also wrote in weekly India Today in the issue dated 12 November 2007-
“But the impact of the expose has been diluted to some extent by inaccuracies in the statements of those interviewed in the sting. Two out of the 14 caught speaking on camera say that one day after the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad on Feb 28 (In which 89 Muslims were killed by a Hindu mob) Modi came to Naroda Patiya to thank them.
But the statements of Babu Bajrangi and Suresh Richard, key accused in the case, seem to be boastful lies as the official records show Modi didn’t go to Naroda Patiya on that day.”
As a matter of fact, Modi did not visit Naroda Patiya either on February 28 or on the 1st March. Was it not the duty of Tehelka
to cross-check and cross examine if the statements made by these people- while thinking that they are talking to a man writing a book from the Hindutva point of view- were boastful lies or real truths before making such serious charges on a Chief Minister and for that matter- these people?
As a matter of fact- none of these statements made by any of the 14 accused have any significance as evidence in any court of law in India. Confessions made intentionally on camera to police carry no value as evidence- only confessions made in court to a judge are regarded as evidence. These so-called confessions were made while casually talking to a person who secretly recorded the proceedings, and they are clearly boastful lies as we have seen the loopholes in them.
Even if there were no inaccuracies- still the statements would have absolutely no value as evidence.
Now let us see the statements of Ramesh Dave, a VHP activist-
“JUNE 12, 2007
Ramesh Dave: We went to the [VHP] office that night… the atmosphere was very disturbing… Everybody felt that [we had taken it] for so many years… Narendrabhai gave us great support…
TEHELKA: What was his reaction when he reached Godhra?
Dave: In Godhra, he gave a very strong statement… He was in a rage… He’s been with the Sangh from childhood… His anger was such… he didn’t come out into the open then but the police machinery was turned totally ineffective…”
The statement “All the police machinery was turned totally ineffective” is another lie- as we have seen- the police shot dead 10 Hindus in Ahmedabad on Feb 28- 5 outside Ehsan Jafri’s house. The Indian Express reported in its issue dated 28 February 2002- even before a single riot had happened that “The state government deployed the Rapid Action Force in Ahmedabad and other sensitive areas while the Centre sent in CRPF personnel”. Modi gave shoot-at-sight orders on Feb 27 at Godhra. There were 827 preventive arrests done on February 27 itself. The Hindustan Times dated 28 February 2002 also said that-“The entire police force of 70,000 had been deployed in Gujarat in view of apprehensions that riots might break out”. All this even before a single riot had taken place.
Now let us see the interview with Haresh Bhatt- former Godhra MLA of the BJP and former national Vice-President of the Bajrang Dal-
“JUNE 1, 2007
TEHELKA: What was Narendra Modi’s reaction when the Godhra incident happened?
Bhatt: I can’t give a statement… But what he did, no chief minister has ever done …
TEHELKA: I won’t quote it anywhere…For that matter… I am not even going to quote you.
Bhatt: He had given us three days… to do whatever we could. He said he would not give us time after that… He said this openly…After three days, he asked us to stop and everything came to a halt…
TEHELKA: It stopped after three days… Even the army was called in.
Bhatt: Yes… That is why I am saying he did what no chief minister can do…
TEHELKA: Did he speak to you?
Bhatt: I told you that we were at the meeting.
• • •
Bhatt: He had to run the government… the trouble he is facing now… there are several cases being re-opened… people are rebelling against him…
TEHELKA: People in the BJP are revolting against him…
Bhatt: People in the BJP… whatever he has done has made him a larger-than-life figure and the other politicians cannot bear to see that…”
Here again see his statement- “He gave us three days”. This is a lie propagated by the media right since March 2002 and innocent and well-meaning people have fallen for it. There were no 3 days given. CNN-IBN’s Hindi channel also alleged one day after these sting operations that- “There were given 3 days”. But The Hindu reported in its issue dated 1st March 2002 that- “(On Feb 28)
The Army units- frantically called by the Chief Minister Narendra Modi…started arriving in Ahmedabad and are expected to be deployed by Friday(March 1) morning”.
This shows that the Chief Minister did not give any time- not even 3 minutes- not to talk of 3 days to anyone for killing. Instead he frantically called the Army. The riots began on February 28 at 11 AM while the Army units started arriving around 11 PM- i.e. within 12 hours the Army units reached Ahmedabad from the border areas. The then Defence Minister George Fernendes also reached Ahmedabad soon thereafter- at 1 AM on the morning of March 1- and in the morning he was bravely parading the streets of Ahmedabad at a great personal risk-on Modi’s request- as reported by The Indian Express dated 1st and 2nd March 2002.
Moreover, The Indian Express reported the next day that the police shot dead 20 people in Gujarat on 1st March- 12 in Ahmedabad. The Hindu reported on 2nd March that the
police shot dead at least 17 people in Ahmedabad alone on 1st March. And on the third day i.e. 2nd March- the
Police/Army shot dead 77 more people-as reported by The Indian Express dated 3rd March 2002. Also The Hindu seems to report correctly and more
accurately than The Indian Express- which has tried to limit the number of people shot dead by the police- because of its horrible anti-BJP bias.
This is sufficient to understand that Haresh Bhatt’s statements are absolute lies. Moreover, Haresh Bhatt also claims that he was there at the meeting. The fact is that Narendra Modi did not meet Haresh Bhatt at Godhra on Feb 27. He went to Godhra and returned in the evening on the same day to Ahmedabad. Uday Mahurkar while writing in weekly India Today dated 12 November 2007 mentions that the official records show that Modi did not meet Bhatt that day in Godhra.
Now see the statements made by Suresh Richard-
“AUGUST 12, 2007
Suresh Richard: [On the day of the massacre] we did whatever we did till quite late in the evening… At around 7.30… around 7.15, our Modibhai came… Right here, outside the house… My sisters garlanded him with roses…
TEHELKA: Narendrabhai Modi…
Richard: Narendra Modi… He came with black commandos… got down from his Ambassador car and walked up here…. All my sisters garlanded him… a big man is a big man after all…
TEHELKA: He came out on the road?
Richard: Here, near this house…Then he went this way… Looked at how things were in Naroda…
TEHELKA: The day the Patiya incident happened…
Richard: He went around to all the places… He said our tribe was blessed… He said our mothers were blessed [for bearing us]…
TEHELKA: He came at about 5 o’ clock or at 7?
Richard: Around 7 or 7.30… At that time there was no electricity… Everything had been burnt to ashes in the riots…
• • •
TEHELKA: Now, after that day when Narendrabhai Modi visited your home, the day of the Naroda Patiya massacre, has he ever been back here again?
Now again- we have seen that Modi did not visit Naroda Patiya that day- neither on Feb 28 nor on 1st March. So these statements
do not have the slightest meaning as evidence. And Tehelka claimed that it had ‘irrefutable evidence’ of Modi’s involvement! On the contrary, there is ‘irrefutable evidence’ of the so-called confessions being meaningless- and that Modi handled the riots extremely efficiently- stopped riots in three days- while it had taken the previous Congress governments 6 months to stop riots in 1985- and 2-3 months in 1969, 1980, 1982, 1990-91-92.
We are seeing the full texts of the interviews published by Tehelka on its own site. We are seeing all the interviews that Tehelka has done. Here is the interview on Arvind Pandya- counsel for the Gujarat government.
“JUNE 6, 2007
Arvind Pandya: [The Muslims of Godhra] thought they could get away with it because the Gujarati is mild by nature. In the past, they had beaten the Gujarati, they have even beaten the entire world, and nobody has shown any courage… Nobody had ever resisted them… They thought they’d get away with it just like they always do, but they used to get away with it because there was Congress rule here earlier… To get their votes, the Congress would suppress Gujaratis and Hindus… But this time, they were thrashed… It is Hindu rule now… All of Gujarat is ruled by Hindus, and that too from the VHP and the BJP…
TEHELKA: They miscalculated…
Pandya: No, what would have happened… If it were a Congress government, then they would have never allowed Hindus to beat Muslims, they would have used their administrative force just to drag the Hindus down… They never stop [Muslims] from violence… They’ll tell Hindus to maintain peace but will never do anything to touch them [Muslims]… They would never have done anything, even in cases like [Godhra], but in this case, there was a Hindu-based government and… so, people were ready and the state was also ready… This is a good connivance [sic].
TEHELKA: This was the good fortune of the Hindu community… the entire Hindu samaj.
Pandya: And let us say the ruler was also strong in nature because he gave, just take the revenge and I am ready… We must first salute Kalyan Singh because he accepted every kind of liability before the Supreme Court, saying… I did this, I was the party….
TEHELKA: Later on, when he changed the party…
Pandya: He did, but he was the founder person, he just stood before the Supreme Court boldly and said that I am the person…
TEHELKA: Took sole responsibility.
Pandya: Thereafter, the second hero by the name of… Narendra Modi came and he gave oral instructions to the police to remain with the Hindus, because the entire kingdom is with the Hindus.
JUNE 8, 2007
TEHELKA: Sir, is it true that when Modi went to Godhra on February 27, that VHP workers attacked him?
Pandya: No, they didn’t. It’s like this… There are 58 bodies… and it’s evening…people are bound to say, what have you done…
TEHELKA: From 8 in the morning till evening, he didn’t land up… So, when things got heated, then Modi ji got angry and he…
Pandya: No it’s not like that… Modi’s been on our line for a long time… Forget that matter… But he’s occupying a post, so naturally there are more limitations… and he has quite a few… It is he who gave all signals in favour of the Hindus… If the ruler is hard, then things can start happening…
TEHELKA: Did you meet… Narendra Modi after he returned from Godhra on the 27th?
Pandya: When Narendra Modi first heard it over the phone, his blood was boiling… Tell me, what else do I say… I’ve given you some hints and I can’t reveal more than that… nor should I say it…
TEHELKA: I wanted to know this… what his first reaction was…
Pandya: No, his reaction was like this: if he were not a minister, he would have burst bombs… If he had the capacity and was not a minister he would have detonated a few bombs in Juhapura [a Muslim dominated locality in Ahmedabad].”
Both the important statements made by Pandya have been highlighted. The first- that Modi gave ‘oral’ instructions to the police to remain with Hindus. This is again false- because as we have seen by now- there were 98 people shot dead by police in the first three days alone-majority of whom are Hindus. On February 28- ALL the people shot dead by police were Hindus.
The second statement- if he was not a minister and he had the capacity- he would have detonated bombs in Juhapura is also irrelevant. In the entire state- no one detonated bombs not only in Juhapura- but also in any other Muslim area.
But Pandya has made a stunning charge against Tehelka. He claims that he was asked to say all this by Aaj Tak scribe Dhimant Purohit- who is his friend- after telling him that this is for a TV serial! After this exposure- he filed a defamation suit against Tehelka- on various charges- which prompted Purohit to seek anticipatory bail.
Now let us see the interview of Rajendra Vyas- Ahmedabad VHP chief-
“JUNE 8, 2007
TEHELKA: I wanted to know… about Narendra Modi… what were his first words [after the Godhra train incident]? What did he tell all of you? …
There is of course- no evidence to support that Modi said any of this. And there is evidence to show that he did none of this. We have seen how efficiently and with a limited police force, even after a shocking massacre like Godhra- Modi controlled the riots in 3 days.
Now let us again see the other statements of people on camera- on what they said about the police. To begin with- Babu Bajrangi:
“SEPTEMBER 1, 2007
Nobody can do what Narendrabhai has done in Gujarat. If I didn’t have Narendrabhai’s support, we would not have been able to avenge Godhra… because the police was standing right in front of us, seeing all that was happening, but they had shut their eyes and mouths… At that time, had the police wanted, they would never have let us in… There was just one entry, like a housing society has, and then Patiya begins… If they wanted to stop us, there were 50 of them there, they could have stopped us… We had good support from the police… because of Narendrabhai… and that is because whatever happened in Gujarat, happened for the best. We got some relief from these people [the Muslims]… they had got so high and daring…
• • •
The Muslims kept making calls to the police, kept running to the police… They had one man called Salem… supposed to be a sort of Naroda Patiya dada… he got into a police jeep… got right inside… I myself caught him and dragged him out… The cops said kill him, if he’s left alive, he’ll testify against us… He was taken a little way away and finished off right there… If the bastard had lived, he would have said he’d climbed into a police jeep and was thrown out, things like that…
• • •
[By the end, there were about 700- 800 bodies.] They were all removed… The Commissioner came that night and said that if there were so many dead at one place, it would create trouble for him… So he had the corpses picked up and dumped all over Ahmedabad… When they were brought to the Civil Hospital for the post-mortem, they were said to be from this place or that…
• • •
AUGUST 10, 2007
At 2.30 that night, I called the police inspector [Mysorewala]… He said don’t come here [to the station]… There were dekho to [shoot at sight] orders against me… Wherever Babu Bajrangi was found, he was to be shot… He told me to run away… our Mysorewala… He said he couldn’t do a thing for me… I wasn’t even to tell anyone he’d called… But even so, he sent a rider to my house… you can imagine how my children felt at that time…
• • •
[Four months later] Narendrabhai told me… there was a lot of pressure on him… The media, TV, so much coverage… Babu Bajrangi is a goonda… Laloo complained in Parliament about my not being caught… So Narendrabhai asked me to surrender… I said, alright saheb, if you tell me to, I will give myself up… I surrendered near Gandhinagar… it was all a big drama… all a drama… the police, the Crime Branch, had been told I would be passing through that area… PP Pandey saheb, who was [joint] commissioner in the Crime Branch then, he was there too and some 12 or 13 cars came… These people waited on the road from Biloda to Gandhinagar… they checked a few cars… I had to land up… it was part of the act… If I’d gone straight to the Crime Branch, the media and the NGOs would have ripped me apart… It was all a drama… they caught me, tied me up with rope… all drama… They told me they were tying me up just for show…”
Now again all this has little value. Because- as we have seen- his earlier statement that “Modi came to Naroda Patiya on Feb 28” is false. The statement that 700-800 bodies were there in Naroda is another lie. This is because- only 89 people were killed in the riots in Naroda Patiya.
On this issue- the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has maintained a complete silence. Hence we have not been able to know many loopholes of this operation. When Bajrangi actually surrendered, at what place, and in what circumstances needs to be checked thoroughly. The statement that-“There were 50 policemen but they didn’t do anything” seems to be another lie. This is because weekly India Today reports in its issue dated 18 March 2002 that- “At Naroda Patiya, the scene of the worst carnage, there was no police presence worth the name…”
Uday Mahurkar wrote-“ Ahmedabad has a police force of 6,000, including 1,500 armed personnel. In addition, the entire state has just four companies (530 jawans) of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) of which only one company could be spared for Ahmedabad. Considering that the mobs that simultaneously surfaced at nearly half a dozen places numbered from 2,000 to 10,000, the forces proved woefully inadequate. At one point on February 28 there were at least 25,000 people targeting the Muslim localities in Ahmedabad alone.
What’s more, the police was expecting trouble in Ahmedabad’s walled city, which has been the scene of communal violence in every riot in the past two decades. This time, however, it wasn’t the walled city where the troubles began. At Naroda Patia, the scene of the worst carnage, there was no police presence worth the name to prevent the mobs from grouping in the morning and going on a rampage. There were at least three mobs of 4,000 to 5,000 each attacking Muslims.”
Months later, The Hindu reported on 20th August 2004 that-
“Inadequate police force
According to (former police inspector of Naroda) Mr. Mysorewala, the Naroda police station with 80 policemen was adequate in normal times but the situation on February 28 was unprecedented and was quickly going out of control.
He said he had asked for police reinforcement and was given 24 additional SRP men but even that was inadequate considering the size of the attacking mob, about 17,000 people. ”
This is what K. K. Mysorewala told the Nanavati Commission on 19 Aug 2004. Also, whether Laloo Yadav really asked for the arrest of Babu Bajrangi in Parliament is not known.
Now see what Suresh Richard about the role of the police:
“AUGUST 12, 2007
The police were with us… I can tell you so myself even now… the police… That day was great… They were shooting right in front of us… They must have killed 70 or 80 or more… didn’t even spare women…
• • •
We’d finished burning everything and had come back… That was when the police called us… They said Muslims were hiding in the gutter… Now when we went there, we saw their houses had all been burned down but seven or eight of them had hidden in the drain… We closed the lid on it… if we’d gone in after them, we might have been in danger… We closed the lid and placed big boulders on it… Later on, they found eight or ten corpses in there… They’d hidden to save their lives, but we closed it off and they died of the gases down there… This happened in the evening… the dhamaal went on till night, till about 8.30…”
Again- this man has spoken boastful lies about Modi’s role- these are more lies. When the police were overwhelmingly outnumbered by mobs of the size of 17,000 as we understand by Mysorewala’s testimony before the Nanavati Commission as well as Uday Mahurkar’s report- they certainly did not kill “70 or 80 or more” people. This is because, in the entire killings at Naroda Patiya, only 89 people were killed. And police shot dead 10 Hindus in Ahmedabad on February 28. Nobody has ever alleged- no Muslim survivor of Naroda Patiya- or anyone else- that the “Police killed 70 or 80 or more Muslims in Naroda Patiya”.
Ahmedabad VHP chief Rajendra Vyas said about the role of the police:
“Rajendra Vyas: As chief minister, Narendrabhai couldn’t say “Kill all the Muslims.” I could say it publicly because I was from the VHP… Pravinbhai Togadia can say it… But he [Modi] can’t say it… But it’s like how we say it in Gujarati, “aa khada kaan khada” [to turn a blind eye]… meaning, he gave us a free run to do whatever we wanted to since we were already fed up of the Muslims… The police was with us… Please understand what I’m trying to say — the police was on our side, and so was the entire Hindu samaj… Bhai [Modi] was careful about that… or else the police would have been on the other side….
TEHELKA: Yes, if it had been a Congress government…
Vyas: Then the result would have been the opposite…
TEHELKA: But the police are after all Hindu. What I want to know is what stand did they take then?
Vyas: They didn’t go near the Muslims… [though] when people would call them up, they’d say they were coming… That’s what they did at that time… The other thing they did was tell people that they could do whatever they wanted… they wouldn’t do a thing…”
Now these are again lies. But see- no mentions of police killing 70 or 80 or more Muslims in Naroda Patiya! But the police did not turn a blind eye to the rioting. They shot dead at least 10 Hindus in Ahmedabad alone on Feb 28, and many more on the next two days- so much so that anti-Modi newspapers like The Indian Express and The Hindu reported it.
M.S.University accountant Dheemant Bhatt said-
“MAY 9, 2007
Some 50 people like myself had special permission from the police commissioner… to move in curfew areas to help… in order to maintain the peace and law and order… That was just an excuse… I am very open… clear [about it]… But how were we to help the Hindus? At that time, there wasn’t even a stick of wood in Hindu homes. So what were we to do?… We took iron pipes… three feet each… iron bars, and if there were people from the Bajrang Dal, then trishuls… The Bajrang Dal people had a plan for putting together the samaan [weapons] and we went and supplied them to key persons in various localities… It was very necessary…”
These facts need to be investigated. If for argument’s sake we assume what he says is true- did the police give him permission intentionally? And it seems highly unlikely that they did- they seem to be more lies.
Dhawal Jayanti Patel said-
“TEHELKA: After Godhra, when you made bombs and sent them to Ahmedabad, didn’t the police stop you on the way?
Patel: We concealed them from the police… the police would also let us go… If you say Jai Shri Ram, it matters… After all they were Hindus, they also understood…”
This is again dubious- whether he really made bombs. But if his confession is true- how is this an indictment of the police? He clearly says that he ‘hid’ the bombs from the police. If the police was involved in the rioting- would he have needed to ‘hide’ the bombs?
Now see the statement made by VHP’s zilla mantra in Kalupur area of Ahmedabad, Ramesh Dave-
“JUNE 12, 2007
The police were very helpful… very helpful… That’s why when the human rights people came… when they saw everything… they said the politicians had a role in it all… the police too, in fact, everyone who belonged to the [Hindu] samaj… because, after all, what were the police?… The police were Hindu too. The thing was, they were under pressure from the government… If they wanted to do something, they couldn’t…
[SK] Gadvi saheb was a new DCP here… Curfew was on and he was patrolling about… I went up to him on my cycle and said namaskar to him… How are you out in curfew hours, he asked… I am a maharaj, I said, I can go wherever I please… Up till then, he didn’t know I was from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad… Then he said he wanted to climb to the top of a nearby temple… I asked him what it was he wanted to do there… He said a lot of Muslims from outside were sitting there and he wanted to set them straight…
I said, if you want to set them straight, then there’s a spot I can take you to… But you have to promise me that you’ll kill at least four or five of them there… He promised…
Then we went to that place… He said he’d been there before… I said, forget whether you’ve been here or not… There was a house which was locked, I had the key sent for and we went to the terrace. From there, the place was straight ahead… He started firing from the terrace, and before we knew it he’d killed five people…
Gadvi saheb would tell us never to take his name anywhere, but all the policemen helped us… they all did… One shouldn’t say it, but they even gave us cartridges…”
Uday Mahurkar wrote in weekly India Today dated 12 November 2007-
“Similarly, a VHP activist, Ramesh Dave, told the Tehelka reporter Ashish Khetan on camera that one of the divisional superintendents of police, S.K.Gadhvi, promised him that he would kill five Muslims during the riots and carried out his promise by killing five Muslims in the Dariapur area.
Official records show that Gadhvi was posted in the Dariapur area of Ahmedabad one month after the riots and no such incident took place under his tenure.”
This again nails the Tehelka and Ramesh Dave’s lies. Now let us see the statements made by Pralhad Raju- an accused in the Gulbarg case-
“SEPTEMBER 8, 2007
TEHELKA: How did the police behave with you on the day of the Gulbarg incident?
Raju: Yes… The Crime Branch people behaved very nicely with us… We felt completely at home… Our family members used to come to meet us and they were allowed to… We were kept at the Branch for about a week…”
These are again boastful lies- and this testimony makes it seem as if this man was not present at the Gulbarg locality on Feb 28 at all. This is because- Ehsan Jafri fired at the Hindu crowd- injuring 7. The police shot dead 5 Hindus and saved the lives of more than 200 Muslims in the episode. There were 250 people inside the house at that time-as mentioned by one of the survivors to US-based human rights group- Human Rights Watch. There were only 39 people killed in the case. Despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered by the crowd- which was 10,000- the police saved the lives of more than 200 Muslims. Uday Mahurkar’s report in weekly India Today dated 18 March 2002 also clearly shows this.
Now see the interview of Anil Patel, the VHP state vibhag pramukh:
“ JUNE 13, 2007
Anil Patel: See, there were some areas where we were very concerned about our safety…
TEHELKA: Such as…
Patel: Kalupur… Dariapur… Hindus live along the edges of these places. For their safety, we sent some samaan [weapons] from here.
TEHELKA: Sent from here…
Patel: From time to time… there were some policemen we were in touch with… They would come and take the samaan and deliver it safely to the places it was supposed to go… The police here gave us so much support… Some even said, do something… loot them, break them, finish them… I had a fight once with a DSP. One of our brothers cut a Muslim’s ear off with a sword and the DSP arrested him. I told the DSP that our people had been burnt to death and that he was corrupt and used to share food with Muslims in Baroda. Later on, he released the guy. DSP ND Solanki was very good. He said, release him…
TEHELKA: So Solanki lent support?
Patel: Full, full. He gave me complete support… See, when the riots were dying out, when temperatures had started cooling down, someone in Biloda village said that nothing had happened there… that something should be done… There was a man there called Mansoori… he was a SIMI sympathiser… he had a vegetable shop… He was hacked to death… Later on, a co-minister from our area, [VHP leader] Arvindbhai Soni, was arrested… I went to Biloda and later on I called the DSP and talked to him… Jayantibhai and I both went and met him and he said he would release Arvindbhai… Everything was there on paper, in the arrest report, but when Arvindbhai was to be transferred to judicial custody, he was told to go back to the [VHP] karyalaya…
TEHELKA: To go to the karyalaya …
Patel: He stayed there for a month and a half.
TEHELKA: That’s what the DSP said? Who was the DSP?
Patel: ND Solanki
• • •
Patel: There was this IB officer, Sreekumar, who sent a fax to the Ahmedabad police commissioner saying the Sabarkantha VHP had supplied weapons to Ahmedabad… The matter was inquired into… our block minister was arrested… The inspector who came for the inquiry was associated with the Sangh…
TEHELKA: What was his name?
Patel: I don’t know but… after the inquiry was over, he told us that he was with the Jeevan Dal Bhole, our vibhag pracharak…”
It is for the investigators to see if the statements made by this man are really true or again lies. But his statement that there was a concern for the safety of the Hindus in Kalupur and Dariapur areas of Ahmedabad is absolutely true.
Now let us see the statements made by Mangilal Jain-an accused in the Ehsan Jafri case:
“SEPTEMBER 8, 2007
TEHELKA: What was the name of that inspector you were talking about.
Jain: [KG] Erda [Meghaninagar police inspector]…
TEHELKA: Erda… what did he do?
Jain: He supported us… Those people kept away from the public that day.
TEHELKA: Kept away from Muslims?
Jain: From the public…. from Hindus… they told us that everything should be finished within two or three hours.
TEHELKA: That means they gave you two or three hours…
Jain: To finish…
TEHELKA: To finish everything…
Jain: This was happening across all of Ahmedabad. [It was understood] no outsider would come. Even reinforcements weren’t going to come… The force wouldn’t get there till evening… So we were to do all the work.
TEHELKA: He told you to do it all in two to three hours…
Jain: He said it and the mob went berserk. Some started looting. Others started killing… Someone dragged a man out and hacked him down and burned him… A lot of this kind of stuff happened…
TEHELKA: You were caught after two months?
Jain: I surrendered after two months.
TEHELKA: Did you appear in court?
Jain: Not in court… I appeared before the Crime Branch people. Sadavrati saheb was there… I called him home. We had dinner. He told me to surrender. I did as he said…
TEHELKA: Sadavrati cooperated?
Jain: Cooperated… he met me in the evening…
TEHELKA: Was he of help…
Jain: He said that Mangilal’s name was there. He told me to surrender…
TEHELKA: At your house?
Jain: At my house… Don’t worry [he said], have no fear and produce yourself at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning… All will be well… Your son will be out in a month or two… Now that his name is on record, there’s no way out… If his name is there, it means he has to appear… Even a PM or CM can’t help it… So I surrendered to the Crime Branch… they took good care of me…
TEHELKA: They took good care of you…
Jain: Yes sir… down there in the lock-up, there were mosquitoes and it’s filthy… We were not kept there… there was a room up above their office… We were kept in the office…There were mattresses… food from my home would come for me twice a day… We were there for three days …
TEHELKA: Three days…
Jain: We were produced in court on the first day…
TEHELKA:Where did they record you as being picked up from?
Jain: Yes, that’s what they said… That’s what the police are like, they say one thing and do something else… All they want is to keep their own names looking clean…
TEHELKA: But they took good care of you…
Jain: I said the shop was closed and I had gone there to watch… I was part of the group… I said I was in the group… and my house was at a distance from that place and there was a huge crowd, I didn’t recognize anyone who did the killing… That’s what I’d say… “Don’t know who was doing the killing… Everybody was raising slogans… so was I…” That’s what I told them, and then I said that after it all, I got home by 2… That’s what I said…
TEHELKA: That’s what you said…
Jain: What I said…
TEHELKA: Didn’t they try forcing you to tell the truth?
Jain: No, sir… I wasn’t even touched… Whatever I said, they noted down…
TEHELKA: Noted just as you said…
Jain: They didn’t say anything to me… I was on remand for two days… the remand was over on the first day itself… It was just for name’s sake… For two days I would get my tiffin from home… my family members would come to meet me… I had every convenience…
TEHELKA: Meaning the remand was just a formality… a legal process…
Jain: These people followed full legal process…”
His statement- “Even reinforcements weren’t going to come… The force wouldn’t get there till evening… So we were to do all the work.” is wrong since reinforcements did arrive that they-but by that time the mob had swelled to 10,000. If this man’s statements are indeed true- there is no reason why he should not be prosecuted. But these statements will not stand as evidence in any court of law.
Another interview is that of Madan Chawal an accused in the Gulbarg episode-
“JUNE 12, 2007
Chawal: I was there that day… all day, I ran with them… When they brought Jafri saheb, I was standing there itself… they held him down, kicked him in the back… they meant to chop him up…
TEHELKA: Describe it all in detail… Where did it begin?
Chawal: I was at my shop when the VHP people came around 8.30-9 o’clock to get the shops to down shutters. Around 9-9.30, a shop was set ablaze right in front of mine. That’s when I realized it had started…
TEHELKA: Was it a Muslim’s shop?
Chawal: Yes, it was. People started running once it started. Papa told me to close my shop… even though it was my region, my area, and nobody would have said anything even if my shop had stayed open… Nobody spoke when they told them to close the shops… Then I gestured with my hands to say it wouldn’t look nice, it was a matter of religion and hence it was all the more important to close the shops… My father said close it for today, let’s go home… My father, the others, all of us went home…Then around 10.30 or 11, I went out… The moment I did so, I joined the mob… the ruckus continued all the time I was with the crowd… it went on for at least two and a half hours …
TEHELKA: Who was leading the mob?
Chawal: Most people had joined the mob. The moment that shop was set on fire, everyone started gathering there.
TEHELKA: Were the VHP people also part of the mob?
Chawal: All of them.
TEHELKA: Who were there from the VHP?
Chawal: At that time, I didn’t know all the leaders… I never had any contacts since I’m from a business background and I knew people only from that field… Later, though, when I met Atul-bhai, I remembered he was there too…
TEHELKA: Atul Vaid was there…
Chawal: Atul Vaid was there, then there’s one Bharatbhai Teli, he was also there. These boys…these big ones… they came to get me out of jail, it was then that I met them… they would come to the police station… Although they never came to the Central jail… they would look at me when they would come to the station … That was when I began realising that they were also there… And I used to wonder why I had been arrested while their names were dropped… Why didn’t Atul
Vaid and Bharat Teli’s names come up when mine did?… I didn’t give it too much importance, though, since these people could have helped me leave jail or do something else for me. That is why I never opened my mouth, never dropped a word anywhere about these people being there too… nobody ever said anything about it… not even the 40 boys who were inside jail…
TEHELKA: Everybody knew it…
Chawal: They knew it…We would never talk about what exactly happened… In jail, we would say that we didn’t know anything about it… that we’d just been trapped … I was recorded in the first chargesheet as having used kerosene to lit a fire… In that chargesheet I had been shot around 5.30-6.00 in the evening when Erda saheb said…
TEHELKA: Who shot you?
Chawal: Erda saheb said that…that whole region… Didn’t I show you the place?
TEHELKA: Yes.
Chawal: I was just standing around… some eight to 15 people were there near him… We asked, saheb, what are you doing, why are you saving them?
TEHELKA: You said this to Erda…
Chawal: The public… we were eight to 15 people… everyone asked him ‘What are you doing?’
TEHELKA: You asked him where he was taking the Muslims?
Chawal:We asked him where he was taking them… then he told us what he was doing…
TEHELKA: What did he say?
Chawal: He said, do this… when the vehicle [in which the Muslims were] comes this way, our constable [accompanying the vehicle] will run away… set the vehicle on fire… The whole episode will end here itself and there will be no question of framing a case against anyone… Poori picture yahin khatam ho jayegi [it will be “The End” here itself]… When he said this, the Bagri community thought that they were taking people who could turn witness… [they feared] that he might get them in trouble… They started pelting stones at Erda saheb… and when one of them hit him, I ran away. He took out his revolver… he was behind me… he yelled at me and told me stop… When I tried to pull my nephew along with me while I was escaping, he shot at me…
TEHELKA: Erda saheb shot you?… Was it by mistake…
Chawal: It was by mistake… it was shot at my hand… My hand was injured but none of the clinics were open, all of them were closed… All the hospital at that time… Then I went to the Civil Hospital… I wasn’t aware about things like these because I had never been part of anything like this before… That day, I ended up getting my real name written in the hospital records…
TEHELKA: Then how did you kill Jafri that morning?
Chawal: Jafri…Well, it’s like when those people caught him, I kicked him in the back and they pulled him away… The moment they pulled him away…
TEHELKA: You kicked Jafri?
Chawal: Kicked him…
TEHELKA: He fell down…
Chawal: Gira… woh nahi… khaich… unke haath me tha, na… Paanchchheh jan pakad liye the, phir usko jaise pakad ke khada rakha phir logon mein kisi ne talwar maari… haath kate… haath kaat ke phir pair kaate… phir na sab kaat dala… phir tukde kar ke phir lakda jo lagaye the, lakde uspe rakh ke phir jala daala… zinda jala daala… [Fell down… not that… He was pulled by his hand… Five or six people held him, then someone struck him with a sword… chopped off his hand, then his legs… chopped off all his organs… after cutting him to pieces, they put him on the wood they’d piled and set it on fire… burnt him alive…]
TEHELKA: So when you people were cutting up Jafri’s body, didn’t Erda come to save him?
Chawal: No one did anything… At that time, Erda saheb wasn’t even there… He had gone to Meghaninagar with his vehicle… He didn’t know they were chopping Jafri saheb… All this happened around 1 or 1.30.
TEHELKA: But did the rest of Jafri’s family manage to escape?
Chawal: No they didn’t… His wife was the only one saved… She disguised herself as a Hindu…
TEHELKA: But some of his daughters were saved?
Chawal: Nobody at the place escaped, none of his family… The only ones who did were the ones who weren’t there… His wife said that she was a maid… a Hindu, living in the Patrewali Chawl that is behind… Why do you want to kill me [she said], I’m just a servant. She was dressed like a Hindu… well dressed…
TEHELKA: She escaped because you didn’t recognise her?
Chawal: I had never met her because there was never a need to go and meet them… I never had any relations with them…
• • •
TEHELKA: How big is Gulbarg society…Do lots of people live there?
Chawal: Lots of them.
TEHELKA: So have people come back to live at this place?
Chawal: Nobody has come back… it’s closed now… it’s like a jail… Nobody came back to it…
TEHELKA: But some people were saved there that evening?…
Chawal: Some 40 people ran away… some of them had left before…
TEHELKA: So how did you enter Gulbarg?
Chawal: People got gas cylinders from their homes… They kept them on the society’s outer walls… then they got pipes from the bakery where bread and so on are made and they opened the cylinders with them. Then they went far and made a khupda [cloth torch] and threw the cylinders at the wall… The cylinders exploded and the wall broke. Then we got inside…
TEHELKA: Was the wall too high?
Chawal: Too much… it was no two ft wall… It must have been around 15-20 feet high…On top of it, there was a barbed wire fence too…
TEHELKA: So the wall broke with just one or two cylinders?
Chawal: Two cylinders… one was thrown there and the other one in the front… The wall would obviously have broken from the cylinders… Cylinders are heavy…
TEHELKA: So the houses inside caught fire?
Chawal: People used the residents ’own things to burn their houses… nobody needed to get anything from outside… their own things were used to burn them…
TEHELKA: The same thing happened in Patiya too…
Chawal: The same happened in Patiya…”
The statement “Nobody from his family survived-expect his wife” is also blatantly false. The fact is that more than 200 Muslims were saved in the episode- and many relatives who were there-apart from his wife-survived. Also- there is no suggestion that his wife disguised herself as a Hindu to save herself. Again- these statements clearly seem to be lies.
Also- Jafri was not cut to pieces. The post-mortem shows he died because of bullet injury. His details of Jafri’s legs being cut etc- all seem to be suspicious- and boastful.
In his interview- Anil Patel- VHP leader also says that Congress leaders were also involved in the riots- attacks on Muslims. What does the Congress Party have to say about that?
All this was about the interviews of the accused and others. But no one has heard their points of view after the sting operation. What do these people have to say in self-defence?
But the Gujarat Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela said something else on this Tehelka operation.
“The Tehelka expose on the Gujarat carnage was a “belated attempt” by the Narendra Modi government to boost his sagging image among the voters ahead of forthcoming state assembly elections, Union Textile Minister Shankersinh Vaghela alleged on Saturday.” This was just an attempt to deflect public attention from the ongoing infighting within the Gujarat unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” he added.
“It is more like a fake encounter, to build his own image as hardcore pro-Hindu and trying to revive Hinduism,” the minister alleged.”
Sankarshan Thakur (of Tehelka) kept reiterating on TV (when he was not busy rudely interrupting Chandan Mitra) that the sting had irrefutable evidence of Modi’s involvement. That, in fact is the whole point of the sting, as Reality Check pointed out in one of the best analysis of the situation so far.
Sankarshan claimed that Bajrangi had confessed that he had cut open a pregnant woman and pulled out the foetus. In fact Bajrangi had said that the FIR on him stated that he had cut open a pregnant woman (transcript does not mention foetus). This makes it the third version of the foetus story (the other version was supplied by none other than Arundhati Roy, when her distraught friend and an eye witness called her up to narrate the foetus brandishing incident). We have seen how Balbir Punj reacted to this in Outlook in our Chapter 6-Concocted Lies and Myths by the Media. Then there was the issue of Ehsan Jafri. His post mortem stated that he had succumbed to bullet wounds - one of the stung claims he was cut up limb by limb.
An article on the internet posted on 27 October 2007 says-
“What can one say about this? Chandan Mitra has a