Gulberg Society Massacre: Justice Compromised

The Gulberg Society verdict of an Ahmedabad special court, that has convicted 24 and acquitted 36, and dismissed the conspiracy charges “for lack of evidence”, cannot satisfy the quest for justice. The Gulberg Society massacre was one of the worst incidents in a pogrom that was unleashed following the Godhra carnage on February 27 2002. The verdict has convicted some leading Vishwa Hindu Parishad figures but has acquitted an accused BJP Councillor as well as police inspector KK Erda.

On February 28, 2002, 69 people including former MP Ahsaan Jafri were killed at Gulberg Society by a mob, and many went missing who were later presumed dead. Survivors accused the police and administration of collusion in the massacre. The SIT appointed by the Supreme Court in 2008 to probe the riot cases, failed to ask crucial questions that would have nailed the deliberate dereliction of duty by the police, administration and Government headed by Narendra Modi.

There are many reasons why the dismissal of conspiracy charges must be challenged in higher courts. First, the landmark verdict in the case of the Naroda Patiya massacre that took place just 4 kilometres away from Gulberg Society, established that the key convicts Babu Bajrangi and Minister Maya Kodnani were kingpins of a conspiracy. Call records show that Bajrangi and the VHP leader Atul Vaidya convicted in the Gulberg case were in close touch with each other; they also show that several key persons from the Chief Minister’s office were in the same area as the Gulberg Society on February 27, a day before the massacre. Call records also belie the claim of Ahmedabad’s Police Commissioner and other key police officers that they were unaware of the massacre that took place at Gulberg Society.

These call records establish that top police officers had visited the Gulberg Society, were aware that a huge restive mob preparing for violence, and yet, left the place without calling additional troops to control the mob. Witnesses have testified to the fact that Ahsaan Jafri made hundreds of calls for help, to the police as well as to top politicians including India’s then Home Minister LK Advani and the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi – but received no help. The Government and police studiously looked the other way and allowed the mob to rape women, lynch Ahsaan Jafri to death and kill 69 people.

The most damning piece of the evidence of the state’s collusion in the 2002 pogrom is the conduct of the then CM Modi who is now the Prime Minister. On February 28 2002, Modi made a televised address via Doordarshan in the evening, after the horrific massacres at Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society had ended – but mentioned only the Godhra carnage, remaining silent on these massacres. He claimed to the SIT that he was informed of these massacres only late that night. If senior police officers failed to keep themselves and the CM informed of massacres lasting several hours in broad daylight in the capital city, why were these officers not punished? Why were they, instead, promoted?

The very next day, 1 March 2002, Modi spoke to a television channel and rationalized the Gulberg massacre and in fact, all the riots, as a ‘chain of action and reaction.’ Modi claimed that Jafri’s action of firing at the mob provoked the ‘reaction’ of the massacre. The question is, had the police and Government responded to Jafri’s frantic calls, would he have been left to defend the Gulberg Society from a murderous mob, with nothing but his own gun? The police chargesheet in the Gulberg case had also initially made the same claim that the violence happened because Jafri fired on the mob. Rahul Sharma, the police officer who pointed out that this chargesheet was not consistent with the FIR, was transferred and has faced harassment and victimisation ever since.

Even today, the Central Government headed by Modi continues to use its power to harass and victimize crusaders for justice like Teesta Setalvad (whose efforts are in large measure responsible for the Naroda Patiya verdict and the partial justice in the Gulberg case) and Indira Jaising who have taken on Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah.

The recently published book Gujarat Files by journalist Rana Ayyub, detailing conversations with top police officers recorded by her during sting operations, also confirms the complicity of the state in the 2002 pogrom. These conversations record Ashok Narayan, Home Secretary at the time of the pogrom, stating that Modi would issue verbal orders to his favoured and trusted police officers to support the VHP in the rioting, and that Modi did so for ‘Hindu votes.’ They also record PC Pande, the Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police at the time of the pogrom, justifying the communal violence as Hindu revenge for previous riots in history where he claimed the Muslims had had the upper hand.

Be it the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom patronized by the Congress or the 2002 pogrom by the Gujarat Government headed by Modi, enquiry commissions and courts have failed the victims and survivors. The political kingpins have escaped unscathed; crucial evidence has been ignored; and at best, some pawns have been punished.
The kingpins of the 2002 pogrom are in power at the Centre today and are trying to scuttle justice. But the courageous survivors including Zakia Jafri, and other fighters for justice will not give up. Their struggle is a rallying point for all democratic forces in India.

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