Gulberg massacre: Top cop says CDs of call details authentic

Today,during cross-examination by Mitesh Amin,representing some of the accused in the case,Sharma said he did not know about the government doubting authenticity of his CDs. He said that after he got the data on CDs from two mobile phone companies — Cellforce (now Vodafone) and AT&T (now IDEA) — he copied the same on his personal computer. After that,he said,he sent the original CDs to his senior officer P P Pande through one of his subordinate officers.

When asked as to why he copied the data on his personal computer,Sharma,an engineer from IIT Kanpur,said it was a common practice among police officers in the state to maintain a copy of the evidence collected during investigation.

He further told the court that since mobile phones were widely used during the riots,an analysis of call records could help in investigation. He added he had just collected that data and not analysed it.

On his letter to then city police commissioner K R Kaushik,Sharma said the letter dated June 4,2002,was part of his duty and responsibility and not a step against the system. In the letter,Sharma had described his meeting with Pande in June 2002,where the latter had asked him to examine the case papers of Naroda Patiya riot and give an opinion. He said he had first resisted,but when Pande insisted,he examined the papers.

Sharma said the chargesheet had mentioned that the riot in Naroda Patiya broke out after a truck ran over some people in the area. He then told Pande that he disagreed with the cause behind the riots and suggested it required investigation. Investigating officers in the case,S H Chudasama and ACP (crime) D G Vanzara,an accused in the Sohrbuddin Sheikh fake encounter case,were also present at the meeting,he said,adding that they did not agree with his view that reason behind riots needs to be probed. Sharma is presently posted as DIG of the police armed unit in Rajkot and is also in-charge commander of the marine task force.

The court also cross-examined two investigating officers of the case — H R Muliyana,presently posted as SP Amreli district and ATS SP G L Singhal.