Extract from written legal submissions submitted to 11th
Metro Court Judge BJ Ganatra on dt.18.9.2013
CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST MODI (SUMMARY)
Introduction:-
The Zakia
Jafri Criminal Complaint
against Narendra Modi and 59 Others, supported by Citizens for Justice & Peace, Mumbai,
was ordered to be investigated by the
Supreme Court, first on 27.4.2009 and thereafter through subsequent
orders. Zakia Jafri & CJP have been attempting to get serious
criminal charges registered and investigated since 8.6.2006. The Special Investigation team (SIT)
originally asked to further investigate None Major Trials was assigned the task
(27.4.2009). An Amicus Curiae was also appointed to assist the Court. The SIT
in its reports from 2010 onwards arrived at the conclusion that while several of the
allegations were found to be correct , there was not sufficient material to
prosecute the accused.
In stark
contrast, the Amicus Curiae senior advocate Raju Ramachandran looking at the
same evidence collected by the SIT, came to a contrary conclusion, stating
clearly that there was evidence enough to prosecute Narendra Modi. Faced with
this dilemma of two contrary assessments, the Supreme Court remanded the matter
to a lower Court directing SIT to file its Final Report there. The SC
specifically directed that if the SIT filed a closure report, the Complainants
were fully within their legal rights to file a Protest petition and access all
Investigation papers/documents. (This is a right under Indian law but was
specifically outlined by the Supreme Court in its final judgement dated
12.9.2011).
Predictably,
the
SIT filed a closure report on 8.2.2012 and remained adamant against
making
Investigation papers available to the Complainants in contempt o the
Supreme
Court order. The Magistrate granted the Complainant her right to the
Investigation Papers on 10.4.2012 but it took Zakia Jafri & CJP
another
year to access all the Investigation reports of the SIT submitted to the
Supreme Court. The SC directed this on 7.2.2013 after which the Protest
Petition was filed on 15.4.2013. From June 24-August 29, 2013 rigorous
arguments in support of the Zakia Jafri Protest Petition were made
before Judge
Ganatra, 11th Metropolitan Magistrate, Ahmedabad. The final day of
arguments on
behalf of the Complainant took place on 18.9.2013. Detailed Written
Submissions on Legal and Factual Aspects were submitted to the Court
today. Now the Judgement of the
Magistrate will be awaited.
Narendra Modi faces Fifteen Serious Charges of :-
· 1. Willfully Ignoring Messages from State Intelligence about the Violent Repercussions of the RSS-VHP called ‘Mahayajna’ before the tragic Godhra incident on 27.2.2002 and deliberately not initiating precautionary measures that are imperative under Standard Operational Procedure; messages from 7.2.2002 to 25.2.2002, including specific ones that stated that batches of 2,800 and 1,900 kar sevaks had left for Faizabad-Ayodhya and had been behaving provocatively and aggressively against minorities on the way. As cabinet minister for home and chief minister, he is directly responsible MOS Home Gordhan Zadaphiya is a constant Co-Conspirator.
·
2. Deliberately
concealing knowledge of the provocative, anti-Muslim sloganeering by kar sevaks
at the Godhra station when the Sabarmati Express reached five hours late on
27.2.2002, which information had been sent to him directly by DM/Collector
Jayanti Ravi and willfully failing to take stern action and allowing violent
incidents to escalate after the train left Godhra by about 1.15 p.m. especially
at Vadodara station where a Muslim was attacked and killed and at Anand where
the train stopped hereafter ensuring that the state allowed a hate-filled and
threatening atmosphere against Muslims build right up to Ahmedabad where the
train finally reached around 4 p.m. and where bloodthirsty slogans were being
shouted. FIRs in 19 brutal incidents against Muslims are recorded on 27.2.2002
in Ahmedabad itself. Curfew was not imposed despite these incidents resulting
in deaths breaking out.
·
3. Conspiring
with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to plot and allow reprisal killings all over
Gujarat. The first phone call that Modi makes after DM Ravi’s fax reaches him
is, not to appeal for peace and calm, but
phone secretary VHP, Gujarat, Dr Jaideep Patel and direct him to Godhra. The
Conspiracy between Modi and the VHP is hatched and unfurled to cynically ensure
state-wide reprisal killings. Phone call records show these phone calls between
PA to Modi AP Patel and Jaideep Patel immediately after the chief minister
receives news of the Godhra tragedy. Phone call records made available by Rahul
Sharma (IPS, Gujarat) also show that Powerful Accused were in touch with the
chief minister’s office (CMO) and the landline numbers of the chief minister. · 4. Brazenly supporting the Bandh call called by the VHP and allowing the streets and public spaces of Gujarat to be used for mass attacks and violence. By 12 noon on 27.2.2002, state intelligence and the police were aware of the Bandh call; the bandh was uses by the police machinery to clear the streets of ordinary citizens so that aggressive mobs could target minority populations and their establishments.
·
5. Cynically,
and illegally allowed Post Mortems Illegally out in the Open at the Railway
Yard, Godhra where the burnt and mutilated corpses were laid in full view of an
aggressive and irate crowd of RSS and VHP men and women, who were gathered
there in violation of Curfew Orders @ Godhra. Deliberately allowing photographs of the burnt corpses to be taken
and widely circulated by the RSS-VHP and media in general, despite it being
prevented under law;
·
6. Personally
instigating individual RSS-VHP men and women at the railway yard at Godhra
assuring them that enough time will be allowed by the Modi-led government and
administration to extract a revenge for Godhra.· 7. Directing that the unidentified bodies of Godhra train victims should be handed over to Jaideep Patel, a non-governmental person, that too belonging to a supremacist and communal VHP to be brought to Ahmedabad where aggressive funeral processions in full public view were allowed. Modi directed this at a meeting at the Collectorate in the evening of 27.2.2002 before he returned to Gandhinagar. Jaideep Patel was allowed to be present at an official meeting at the Collectorate. Jaideep Patel is a co-conspirator and also facing trial for mass crimes in the ongoing Naroda Gaam case. Modi is specifically guilty of allowing the escalation of violence from Godhra to other parts of Gujarat and taking decisions contrary to law.
·
8. Specifically
instructing his top policemen and administrators not to act evenhandedly in the
days to follow and “allow Hindus to vent their anger.” Two senior bureaucrats present
at the meeting have stated that cabinet ministers were present at a meeting
that went on well past midnight. Haren Pandya, a minister in Modi’s cabinet in
2002 had given evidence of this to the Concerned Citizen’s Tribunal headed by
Justice Krishna Iyer and PB Sawant in 2002 itself. Later in 2009 a serving
officer from the state intelligence, Sanjiv Bhatt also gave the same evidence
before the SIT and the Supreme Court.
·
9. Preventing
the Imposition of Curfew. Curfew was deliberately not imposed at Ahmedabad
while over 3,000 RSS workers were allowed to gather at the Sola Civil Hospital
where Jaideep Patel arrived with the bodies of the Godhra victims at about 4
a.m. The crowd was aggressive and violent as proved from the police control
room records. No steps were taken to disperse the crowd that attacked the
hospital staff and doctors, a High Court judge, Violent funeral processions
were allowed to wind through the streets of Ahmedabad for several hours at two
locations; worst Acharya Giriraj Kishore was given police escort to come and
further provoke the aggressive mob; the cremations took place only in the
evening and attacks on Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaam and Gulberg Society where
over 200 persons were massacred (and rapes allowed) in broad daylight on the
same day, 28.2.2002, while violent and aggressive funeral processions were
willfully allowed by Modi and the police and administration.
·
11.
Fourteen
out of Gujarat’s 25 districts were allowed to burn as Ministers were
specifically deployed by Modi to interfere with Police functioning and sit in
the State Control Room and Ahmedabad City Control Room; in Eleven Districts
where Violence was controlled, the Police Officers in Charge were given
Punitive Transfers to send a Political Message. Modi heads the Home department
that bends the Police Bureaucracy and Police to his Will.
·
12.
Modi
allowed violence to continue unabated until early May 2002 when KPS Gill was
sent by PM Vajpayee to the state; the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),
April and July 2002 and Central Election Commission (CEC) were misled about the
spread and intensity of violence. This was willful subversion of the justice system. The Subversion of the Home Department
under A-1 in which co-accused, Gordhan Zadaphiya, MOS Home, A-5, Ashok Narayan,
ACS Home, A-28, and K Nityanandam, Secretary, Home, A-34 played an active
part included deliberately misinforming the Ministry of Home Affairs of the
Government of India about the extent and spread of violence:- Correspondence
exists to reveal how senior VHP and RSS men were being kept out of the FIRs and
charge sheets related to serious massacres being filed by the Ahmedabad Crime
Branch; how violence was recurrent and was being allowed with even ministers
like Bharat Barot directly involved.
·
13.
Partisan
prosecutors belonging to the RSS-VHP were appointed to ensure that cases were
killed in their infancy; bail was easily granted to powerful accused until the
Supreme Court stepped in, in 2003 and 2004. Two trials, the Best Bakery trial
and the Bilkees Bano cases were transferred out of the state.
·
14.
Hate
Speech was indulged in by Modi himself, on 27.2.2002 and right until the
infamous Becharaji speech made top set off his election campaign on 9.9.2002
and also cynically permitted by the Home Department under him to spread poison
and incite violence against Muslims and Christians. The State Intelligence
under ADGP-Int RB Sreekumar had specifically recommended prosecution of the VHP
for a series of incendiary pamphlets but this was ignored. SP Bhavnagar, Rahul
Sharma too had recommended the prosecution of Sandesh, the Gujarati mainstream newspaper for publishing false and
provocative photographs and reports. Both the NHRC and Editor’s Guild had also
strongly recommended prosecution of those guilty of hate speech. Modi had,
instead sent congratulatory letters to those newspapers who had spread lies and
venom. RB Sreelumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt are among the officers
persecuted by the Gujarat government under Modi (home minister).
·
15.
Modi
is guilty of ordering the Destruction of Crucial documents including Wireless
Intercepted Messages, Vehicle logs, Police Control Room records and others on
30.3.2008, four days after the Supreme Court appoints the Special Investigation
Team (SIT) on 26.3.2008.
He has headed the Home ministry portfolio since that date.
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