DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD

Tehelka May 12 , 2007
Yes, that still happens. in democratic, 21st-century India. Ashish Khetan and Harinder Baweja unravel the chilling story of the murder of Sohrabuddin and Kausar Bi by top Gujarat policemen and their bid to cover up the crime
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
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.
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.

A DEFENCELESS SOHRABUDDIN IS KILLED
A few hours before the cops shifted Kausar Bi, they took Sohrabuddin away from Disha Farm and killed him, camouflaging it as a police encounter. On the morning of November 26, television channels started flashing the news: Supercop DIG Vanzara and Co. have foiled a major terror bid by killing Sohrabuddin, a dreaded Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist. In a press conference later, Vanzara said that Sohrabuddin was planning to eliminate Narendra Modi.

First the fiction - from the FIR filed by the ATS: "On 25.11.2005, at 11.00 hours in the night, ATS police inspector NH Dhabhi received secret information that Sohrabuddin has come to Ahmedabad from Surat and today (26.11.2005) morning on a motor cycle he is going to pass from Narol Circle to Juhapura Sarkhej of the city to meet some Nazir." A joint team of the Ahmedabad ATS and the Udaipur Police was formed to carry out the ‘encounter'. The team, along with others, included Inspector Dhabhi and constable Santram Sharma, both of whom had gone to Hyderabad and were part of the team that picked up Sohrabuddin, his wife and their companion from the bus. The ATS FIR further states: "Today on 26.11.2005, at about 5:20 hours, one motorbike rider was found coming on Naroda road from far. On coming nearer in light of battery Shri Dabhi Saheb recognised that he is Sohrabuddin. Therefore I (Udaipur Police inspector Abdul Rehman) and Shyam Singh and my colleague ATS Himanshu Singh (both from Udaipur Police) who were close, stood out on the road and by telling ‘Police is, therefore stop' and made a sign to stop."

DIG Vanzara, accused of staging other fake encounters, perhaps emboldened by his success rate, never bothered to explain why they didn't manage to apprehend Sohrabuddin when they had such pinpointed information. The FIR continues to say that on seeing the police party Sohrabuddin attempted to turn around but the motorbike slipped. "But jumping over Sohrabuddin stood out on one side...and by taking out revolver from his waist belt took an aim at asi Chaubey. But he moved to a side and at that time I (Inspector Rehman) by taking out my service revolver told him that ‘Come and get arrested under Udaipur police'... then instead of surrendering he started firing from...Under this situation, I fired two rounds from my service pistol, asi Shyam Singh fired one round, asi Himanshu Singh fired two rounds and police inspector Dhabhi fired three rounds from his service revolver."

Here are the facts, as narrated by Pandian's personal assistant constable Ajaykumar Bhagwandas Parmar, whose statement was recorded by the enquiry team headed by ig Geetha Johri. He told the enquiry officer that at around 4am on November 26, he was instructed by Inspector Dhabhi to bring a Hero Honda motorcycle lying in the backyard of the ATS office to Narol Circle. On reaching Narol Circle, Parmar saw that DIG Vanzara, sp Pandian and Udaipur sp Dinesh MN were present there. He says that after a while a Maruti car pulled up and dy sp Parmar and Inspector Chaube emerged with Sohrabuddin. He further says that "at that time, a Rajasthan police sub-inspector took away the motorcycle brought by me, drove it for a short distance and jumped off and the motorcycle skidded along the road. At that time Sohrabuddin was pulled out of the Maruti car by inspector Chaube and was thrown onto the road. Then pi Abdul Rehman fired two rounds from his service pistol, asi Shyam Singh fired one round, asi Himanshu Singh two rounds and pi Dhabhi three rounds. After that, Sohrabuddin was lying in a pool of blood. Thereafter Vanzara instructed dy sp Parmar to take Sohrabuddin to the civil hospital."

THE MURDER MOTIVE
The Action Taken Reports are mum on the motive behind the killings and Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president BharATSinh Solanki is alleging that the state government has made crores by the killings. Highly-placed sources handling the case have told Tehelka that the arrested ATS officers received Rs 60 lakh from a marble trader from Rajasthan to liquidate Sohrabuddin. Sources said that the supari was given through a senior BJP general secretary related to the marble trader. Given the level of fear in the corridors of power - wherein senior police officers communicated with these reporters via notes scribbled on scraps of paper, fearing that their offices and phones were bugged - officials revealed that the government is not letting them bring the supari aspect on record. The level of fear can be gauged from the fact that several lower level policemen who were part of the fake killings, and who then gave their statements, have now gone into hiding.

HOW SOHRABUDDIN'S FRIEND WAS KILLED
After Sohrabuddin was killed on November 26 and his wife Kausar Bi went missing, Sohrabuddin's brother Rubbabuddin Shaikh knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court. His letter was treated as a petition and forwarded to the Director General of Police of Gujarat for further inquiry. Gujarat DGP PC Pande wrote to Inspector General of Police, State CID (crime), Geetha Johri on June 7, 2006 and a case was registered as Enquiry No 66/06 with the state CID (crime).
Once Johri's team started establishing the shocking truth, the encounter cops headed by Vanzara sensed trouble. They realised that Sohrabuddin's friend Tulsiram Prajapati was still alive to nail their lies. After Sohrabuddin's encounter, Prajapati was shown arrested in Udaipur. Since then he had been loDGed in Central Jail in Udaipur. Aware that Prajapati was an important witness, another plot was hatched by the same three encounter specialists. On December 26, 2006 Prajapati was brought to Ahmedabad by the Udaipur police to attend a date in the court of 13th metropolitan magistrate in connection with an old offence registered at Navrangpura police station, Ahmedabad.

Here again, is some more fiction: After the court appearance, when the train in which Prajapati was being escorted back stopped at Himmatnagar railway station, the Udaipur police claim, that two men threw chilli powder in the eyes of cops escorting Prajapati and secured his release. The police claim that two days later, in the wee hours of December 28, when a team of Rajasthan and Gujarat police were patrolling in Ambaji town, Banasakantha district, they saw three individuals trying to stop a matador. But the matador did not stop. The three individuals then tried to stop the police van in which the patrol team was travelling.

At that point, one assistant sub-inspector recognised one of the three men as Prajapati who then fired at the police van, says the police FIR. The bullet hit the jeep and all three started running away, says the FIR. It then states that, on being chased, two men escaped whereas Prajapati stopped, turned back and fired at the police. The police retaliated and Prajapati was killed. The encounter took place at 5am on a winter morning. How the police could have identified Prajapati in pitch darkness is anybody's guess.

The SP, Banasakantha district, has stated on record that the information regarding Prajapati's escape was conveyed to him by Udaipur sp Dinesh MN - the same officer who was part of the team that killed Sohrabuddin. The other question that arises is why would Prajapati, after making an escape, roam around in Ambajai town of Banasakantha district. CoinCIDentally, Prajapati was killed in Banasakantha within two weeks of Vanzara taking over as DIG of Border range comprising Banasakntha district. As in Sohrabuddin's killing, in Prajapati's encounter too, police from Gujarat and Rajasthan were involved.

THE COVER-UP CONTINUES
Though the Supreme Court had asked the DGP Gujarat PC Pande to start an enquiry by its letter dated January 21, 2006, Pande took as many as six months before he asked IGP, CID (Crime) Geetha Johri to start the enquiry. The first letter that Pande addressed to Johri was dated June 7, 2006. Johri formed a team led by Inspector VL Solanki to enquire into the matter. Solanki submitted two interim enquiry reports to Johri dated September 1, 2006 and December 7, 2006 which made it clear that Sohrabuddin was not killed in an encounter as the ATS claimed but was first picked up along with his wife Kausar Bi from a bus and detained for several days.

Based on these reports Johri sent a report to DGP Pande dated December 7, 2006. However, Pande never submitted this report to the Supreme Court. Instead, it was Additional DGP, Human Rights, Chitranjan Singh who forwarded a copy of the Johri report to the Apex court. After this, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam wrote to the Assistant Solicitor General of the Gujarat High Court, Harin Raval, asking him to obtain copies of all the reports that the CID might have had submitted to DGP Pande.

Following this, Pande gave Raval a copy of Johri's report which was then sent to Subramaniam. On December 18, 2006 when Johri and Solanki were all set to go to Hyderabad for further enquiry then Additional DG CID GC Raigar suspended the enquiry and took away all the papers from Johri on the pretext of scrutiny. As a result Johiri and Solanki's trip to Hyderabad was cancelled. On December 28, Tulsiram Prajapati was killed in a so-called encounter.

At this stage, CID sources told Tehelka, Minister of State for Home Amit Shah directed GC Raigar to provide him with a list of all the witnesses who were mentioned in the interim reports. On January 30, 2006 Amit Shah called a meeting of DGP Pande, Addl DG GC Raigar and ig Johri at the circuit house, Gandhinagar. In the meeting Shah tried to impress upon the cops that Kausar Bi was not a lawfully married wife of Sohrabuddin and "as she was a Pakistani she might have escaped to Pakistan." Later when Johri put up a note before Addl DG CID for registering an offence against Vanzara, Pandian, Dinesh MN and other officers, the latter while approving the note orally instructed Johri to not register the FIR without his instructions.

In the first week of February, Shah relieved GC Raigar of the charge of Addl DG CID and instead brought in Addl DG (Prisons) OP Mathur and gave him the additional charge of Addl DG CID. Mathur has already been served with a departmental chargesheet in a complaint of sexual harassment lodged against him. By handing over the charge of the CID to a tainted officer, Shah apparently ensured more pliability from Mathur and his subordinates in the ongoing probe. In the first week of March, as expected, Mathur took away the enquiry from Johri and handed it over to IGP, CID, Keshav Kumar.

On March 30, the investigation was handed over to DIG Rajnish Rai. Rai, unknown to even the DGP, made some swift moves and on March 24 arrested Vanzara, Pandian and Dinesh MN. Rattled by Rai's alacrity, DGP Pande issued yet another directive and made OP Mathur, the Addl DG, the supervisory in-charge.

Clearly, the Gujarat government is still dragging its feet. Human lives truly come cheap in Modi Land.