JUNE 13, 2007

Anil Patel: You ask me questions and I will answer…

TEHELKA: I don’t know much about this area…

Patel: Let me tell you about this district, Sabarkantha. The maximum number of FIRs were filed here, after Godhra. I know because I handled all the cases on behalf of the VHP. There were 40 murders, 60 murders here…

TEHELKA: In Dhansura alone?

Patel: No, in Sabarkantha. All of Sabarkantha. As for setting villages ablaze, even the smallest one was not spared… Not even one Muslim home was spared in the entire district. At nine in the morning on February 27, I got to know that the train had been burnt but when I saw it on TV, I realised it was a big incident and that there would be a big reaction… Then a message came from the state office saying that the next day a bandh would be observed… Then I met a friend who asked me how we would respond

TEHELKA:Was he a Muslim?

Patel: No, he’s Hindu… I told him that the entire world would watch what we would do the next day. At 10 that night, I received a call from the [VHP] office asking me to identify the bodies of the 16 karsevaks who belonged to my district. I was asked to inform their families and arrange for the bodies to be taken to their homes. The first reaction to Godhra happened from my district, from village Badgaon near Dhansura. The stabbing that happened at Baroda railway station… that was carried out by a worker from Badgaon. Then there was a stabbing at Anand station — that was also done by one of our cadres with a trishul. And when our activists returned, they took an oath at the main square that the next day itself, they would give a befitting reply.

TEHELKA:Were only the Parishad workers present?

Patel: No, the entire Hindu community had got together. Even the Congress joined us. The BJP was also there. Some Congress supporters — every village has four or five — were not with us and were busy trying to protect the Muslims. There was an MLA, Haribhai Patel — he has expired since — who tried to protect the Muslims. There was another guy, Jagrobhai Mistri, a very rich man, who was also trying to save the Muslims… There was this other incident when the violence was going on… The photos of a nude girl were found in the house of a Muslim, Bapu Hajim… they were of one of our Hindu girls… fully naked… the girl was naked and so was Hajim… We found six or seven photos like this… We showed them to Haribhai and told him, look at what the Muslim is doing… He got up and walked away.