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Imaging: Uzma Mohsin / Photo
Courtesy: Indian Express |
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DIG
Vanzara — accused of staging other fake encounters —
never bothered to explain why the police couldn’t apprehend
Sohrabuddin if they had such pinpointed information about his
whereabouts |
The horror has returned,
just as it does every time the Gujarat government admits to an extra-constitutional
killing. First it was Sohrabuddin, then his wife Kausar Bi, then their
friend Tulsiram Prajapati. A Muslim, a Hindu and a woman. Life is cheap
in Gujarat and the State has been forced to admit to this alarming,
nauseating fact.
The bare facts
are well known. All three were done to death in cold blood. None was
a terrorist, let alone from the infamous Lashkar-e-Toiba. Sohrabuddin
was a criminal, yes, an extortionist even, but he was NOT part of any
conspiracy to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi or any other BJP leader.
Nor had he, as the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) would have us
believe, come to the state to “cause terrorist attacks”.
Three senior police
officers — DIG DG Vanzara, Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Pandyan,
both from the Gujarat Police, and Superintendent of Police Dinesh MN
of the Rajasthan police force — have, in turn, been arrested for
the fake encounters. But, reflective of the reality in Gujarat are the
pro-Vanzara slogans that filled the air in the court premises of Ahmedabad’s
chief metropolitan magistrate.
This story, however,
is not about a state painted a deep hue of saffron but about the rule
of law and the fundamental right to life, even if that sounds like an
oxymoron. This story is about facts. Facts that fly in the face of the
Gujarat government’s fiction. It is the inside story of the truth
behind the fake encounters, pieced together from an enquiry that the
State tried its best to subvert, despite a directive from the Supreme
Court.
WHERE ARE
KAUSAR BI’S REMAINS?
Ironically,
part of the truth has come from the selfsame Vanzara the sloganeering
protestors were hailing. Read this excerpt. It is straight out of the
Gujarat government’s Action Taken Report-3, delivered in a sealed
envelope to the Supreme Court on April 30 but accessed by Tehelka: “The
custodial interrogation of these arrested persons (Vanzara and company)
has led to the disclosure of some very important clues regarding the
whereabouts of Kausar Bi… Kausar Bi along with her husband Sohrabuddin
was abducted by a team of ATS Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh on 23/11/2005…
Both were brought to Ahmedabad and confined in a farmhouse. After the
killing of Sohrabuddin, the ATS Gujarat shifted Kausar Bi from the said
farmhouse to another farmhouse. The body of Kausar Bi was disposed of
a few days after the encounter of Sohrabuddin by burning it near village
Illol in Sabarkantha district…”
Illol is not just
any village. It is Vanzara’s native village and police sources
reveal that Kausar Bi’s remains were probably thrown into a well
which was then sealed and a wall constructed to conceal it. According
to a few men in uniform who are on the side of the truth, Vanzara and
Pandyan even arranged for 400 kg of wood to burn Kausar Bi’s body.
Before she was killed,
Kausar Bi is also said to have been sexually exploited because it is
clear from the Gujarat government’s atr-3, that she was “disposed
of (note the language) a few days after the encounter of Sohrabuddin”.
CID sources say the ATS held on to her with the sole purpose of sexually
assaulting her. Unlike Sohrabuddin, whose body was handed over to his
family, Kausar Bi’s remains are still untraced and the atr-3 says,
“Sincere efforts are being made to find traces of the body (sic)
so that the same may be subjected to scientific investigation to establish
the identity of the deceased.” It is clear that the couple was
killed but how did the ATS abduct them in the first place?
THE CHASE
FOR THE TRIO
 |
RED
FACED: Gujarat top cop
DG Vanzara is at the centre of the scandalous killing of Sohrabuddin
and his wife Kausar Bi. He is said to have used the homestead
in his
native village to put away the last remains of Kausar
Janak Patel |
During its inquiry,
the CID recorded the statement of constable Ajaykumar Bhagwandas Parmar,
personal assistant to ATS sp Rajkumar Pandian. Parmar has narrated the
entire chain of events starting from Hyderabad, where the hunt for Sohrabuddin
began on November 21, 2005, to his murder on November 26, 2005. His
statement flies in the face of the ATS version recorded in the FIR they
registered after they killed Sohrabuddin. Parmar says that while he
was on duty at around 5pm on November 20, Pandian told him to leave
for Hyderabad for a special operation. Two hours later, on Pandian’s
instructions, Parmar along with police inspector NH Dhabhi, constable
Santram Sharma, constable Gurdayal Singh and driver Jadeja left for
Hyderabad in a privately-owned Qualis. They reached Hyderabad at around
8pm the next day and, as instructed, first went to the CISF office and
then to the residence of E. Radhakrishnaiah — a Gujarat cadre
IPS officer now posted as DIG in the CISF at Hyderabad — where
they found Pandian already present.
While Pandian and
Sharma stayed in the IPS mess, Parmar and others stayed at the CISF
compound. On November 22, Inspector Dhabi instructed Parmar to get two
fake number plates made that were later fitted on the Qualis. Pandian
also sent Parmar to Hyderabad airport to book a ticket on an Indian
Airlines flight to Ahmedabad for November 23 in Pandian’s name.
When Parmar came back with the ticket, Pandian told him to remain at
the IPS mess where he was staying and to fly to Ahmedabad the next day
on his ticket. Pandian, along with Sharma, Dhabhi and Jadeja left in
the Qualis followed by seven Andhra Pradesh policemen and Gujarat Police
constable Gurdayal Singh in two Tata Sumos. Parmar flew back to Ahmedabad
on Pandian’s ticket the next day
All these facts
have been corroborated by constable Singh in his statement before the
CID. Gurdayal Singh also disclosed that the van in which Pandian, Dhabhi,
Sharma and Jadeja were travelling, and the two jeeps carrying himself
and seven Andhra Pradesh policemen, reached the Bombay-Hyderabad highway
at around 8:30 pm on November 22. Pandian then instructed the Andhra
cops to keep a distance of two to three km from his van. Pandian also
told Gurdayal Singh and the Andhra cops to stop all vehicles coming
from Mumbai or Belgaum towards Hyderabad.
The arrested ATS officers
received Rs 60 lakh from a marble trader in Rajasthan to liquidate
Sohrabuddin. Sources said that the supari was given through a
senior BJP general secretary related to the marble trader |
Pandian then proceeded
with the other Gujarat cops in the Qualis, and the Tata Sumo carrying
Andhra cops. He and his men had information that Sohrabuddin, Kausar
Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati were travelling in a luxury bus (number 5051)
owned by Hyderabad-based MJ Travels. The bus was headed towards Sangli.
Pandian and his men intercepted it at around 1:30am on November 23,
two km from Tandola village.
The CID has taken
down the statements of some co-passengers on the bus and of the driver
and other staff. All have testified that a Qualis intercepted the bus
and soon a Sumo also reached the spot. They said that two men got out
of the Qualis and three men, one carrying a revolver, from the Tata
Sumo and entered the bus saying that they were conducting a police checking.
Then they picked up two men and a woman and took them away.
When shown photographs
of Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi by CID officials, bus driver MG Shaikh,
cleaner GJ Chabuk and co-passengers SK Apte, Amit Sharad, Manjusha Sharad
and Anjali Apte identified them as those picked up from the bus by the
policemen in civilian dress on the night of November 22. At around 2am
on November 23, Gurdayal Singh and the Andhra Police personnel in the
other Sumo were asked by Pandian to reach village Tandola on the Hyderabad-Sangli
Highway. From there they all drove to Ahmedabad. All three reached the
Ahmedabad-based ATS office at around 5am on November 24.
PREPARING
FOR THE FAKE ENCOUNTER
After reaching Ahmedabad, the couple were taken to a farmhouse. The
CID has recorded the statement of one Satishbhai Ramjibhai Sharma of
Ahmedabad who said that he received a call on his mobile phone on November
23 from a deputy superintendent of police posted with the ATS, Ahmedabad,
ML Parmar, whom he was acquainted with. Sharma in his written statement
has told the CID that Dy SP Parmar asked him to arrange for a private
farmhouse for a sensitive investigation being conducted by the ATS.
Sharma accordingly arranged a farmhouse by the name of Disha Farm in
Jamiyatpura village in Gandhinagar, owned by Sharma’s friend Girishbhai
Chhotolal Patel.
On the evening of
November 24, Parmar again rang up Sharma and told him to wait for him
at Koba Circle in Gandhinagar. At around 7pm, Parmar reached Koba Circle
in a Qualis, with a white Maruti van behind it. Sharma then took them
to Disha Farm. When Sharma, Parmar and the van reached the farmhouse,
an employee called Mehtaji was also present.
Sharma has told
the CID that on reaching the farmhouse, Parmar and a few policemen got
down from the Qualis and the van, and took out a handcuffed man, whose
face was covered, and a burqa-clad woman from the Qualis. The policemen
then escorted the two into the farmhouse. Circumstantial evidence strongly
suggests that these two were in fact Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi. Sharma
further says that two days later, on November 26, the farmhouse owner
Girishbhai Patel called him up at around 8am and requested him to shift
the woman to some other place. Sharma in turn spoke to Parmar, who sent
some policemen to Disha Farm, and the woman was taken away in a Maruti
van at around 10am on November 26. The CID has recorded the statements
of Girishbhai Patel and his employee Mehtaji, who have corroborated
the facts Sharma narrated. The CID in its further investigation has
found that Kauser Bi was shifted to Arham Bungalows in Koba on the outskirts
of Ahmedabad, owned by a BJP corporator, one Surendra Jirawala.
