By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net
Mumbai: Concerning the development in the investigation of the Gujarat serial blasts, Communalism Combat (CC), a monthly journal which is being published for the last 15 years, has raised what Teesta Setalwad in an exclusive interview with TwoCircles.net termed as “normal questions” which the whole climate created by the “war against terror” and the way the Indian authorities are dealing with the issue, is not allowing to be asked.
The Gujarat police is yet to answer these questions.
Communalism Combat is a monthly magazine of Sabrang which is an NGO working in the areas of protecting and promoting human rights in India.
In its July-August edition CC has published a report titled “Gujarat blasts: Case closed” by Teesta Setalwad tries to prove the claims of the state police as hollow by saying that “the so-called breakthrough in the Ahmadabad blasts case raises more questions than it answers.”
The report expresses its view frankly by saying that how come that police be trustworthy which is patronized by a “criminal” like Modi, and which is headed by a police officers like P. C. Pandey who was allegedly complicit in orchestrating the genocide in the state in 2002.
“Ironically, both men at the helm in Gujarat, the state’s chief minister, Narendra Modi, and the director general of police (DGP), PC Pandey, stand seriously indicted for criminal conspiracy and mass murder of the state’s 2,500 Muslims in 2002. A significant section of the Gujarat police, especially its crime branch, has been found guilty of unprofessional and criminal conduct vis-à-vis the state’s minorities. Unfortunately, such discriminatory policing enjoys highest political sanction in Gujarat.”
Some of the prominent questions it has asked from Gujarat police follow as below.
1-Outfits named: In Ahmedabad, as elsewhere, the moment the bombs exploded both the political class and “intelligence sources” held SIMI and Lashkar responsible for the attacks even as they admitted their ignorance about how these outfits operate.
2-Arrests of the alleged accused: Abdul Halim, an alleged activist of the banned SIMI who the police claimed was wanted in the 2002 Gujarat riots (we are not told for what offence), was arrested in Ahmedabad (Deccan Herald, July 27, 2008). The police claimed that he had been in hiding since 2002.What is the actual evidence of Halim’s involvement? Reports suggest that far from absconding, Halim was an active community leader in Dani Limda and police claims that he had been absconding were untrue.
3-The Gujarat police must also explain the prompt arrest of Sajid Mansuri, who we are told was the link between the planners and executors of the blasts. The police said he had been on the run for over seven months. How was Mansuri suddenly located and conveniently arrested 20 days after the Ahmedabad blasts? (DNA, August 17, 2008).
When was this information, which is now being offered so readily by the authorities, actually collected? We are talking here of 15 and 12 year-old facts, so what were the authorities doing with this knowledge until now? Incidentally, Halim’s family has denied all the ‘facts’ obtained by the Crime Branch allegedly under torture.
On August 18, 2008 The Times of India reported on the arrests of an alleged ISI agent, Vishal Upadhaya of Jharkhand, an engineering student, in 2007 and of a former jawan, Shailesh Jadhav of Satara, who was arrested in Pune in 2008 for his alleged links with the ISI. Has there been any follow-up of these arrests, any further investigations?
4-Substances Used: On the very day the blasts occurred Narendra Modi asserted that ammonium nitrate and gelatine sticks were used in the bombs, also stating that the Ahmedabad Crime Branch would be handling the case (DNA, July 27, 2008). An obvious part of the investigation ought to have been probing the leakage of these volatile substances right from the production stage up to retail sale to the end user (in this case the terrorists).
Nothing in the Gujarat police ‘breakthrough’ makes any mention of any investigation into these leaks.
5-According to DCB officials, LPG cylinders, each of a five-litre capacity, were used in the blasts at the LG and Civil hospitals. The cylinders were found to have been manufactured at Meerut in UP while their distributors were traced to Kalupur in Ahmedabad.
How did the Crime Branch conclude that the source of the cylinders used was/is a Kalupur distributor? Do cylinders have any identification marks or serial numbers?
6-The vehicle trail: A ‘failed plan’ to explode over a dozen bombs in Surat put investigators on an interstate trail of vehicles suspected to have been used in the Ahmedabad explosions.
The Maharashtra ATS says that it has detained car thieves from Navi Mumbai and Thane but is cagey on all other details (The Times of India, August 18, 2008).
Since vehicles have been seized, why has the vehicle trail been dropped? (The culprits of the 1993 Bombay blasts were traced through vehicle numbers and registrations.) Why are the Gujarat and Maharashtra police suddenly silent on this? The Surat vehicles bear Vadodara number plates yet their registration has been traced to Maharashtra; both the ATS Maharashtra and the Gujarat police are reluctant to release any details about the vehicles’ registration.
7-E-mail threats: An accountant, Deepak Shivshankar Pandey, was arrested by Mumbai Crime Branch officials on July 31, 2008 for allegedly sending an email to a news channel in which he threatened more blasts. Though Pandey hailed from Mumbai, he was arrested in Ludhiana. The police said the email was traced back to the Punjab city from where he was then arrested (The Asian Age, August 1, 2008). According to Pudhari, a prominent Marathi daily published from Pune, Pandey is a committed activist and member of the RSS. Pudhari also reported on August 4 that Pandey had earlier been arrested for sending emails to the Maharashtra chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, and deputy chief minister, RR Patil, threatening to blow up religious places.
Is there a link between this arrest and the other terror emails?
Link:
http://www.sabrang.com/cc/archive/2008/july-aug08/index.html