Premium

This is an archive article published on November 24, 2004

Ahmedabad police chief said he can’t recall, this should jog his memory

Deposing before the Nanavati-Shah riots panel on August 18, P C Pande, Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad during the riots, said he came to kn...

Deposing before the Nanavati-Shah riots panel on August 18, P C Pande, Police Commissioner of Ahmedabad during the riots, said he came to know of the Naroda Patiya violence only at 9.30 pm on February 28, 2002, when ‘‘I received information that some persons had been killed there.’’ And it was only around 10 or 11 pm when he went there that he understood the ‘‘gravity’’ of the situation.

However, by 9.30 pm, the massacre was long over, 83 had already been killed and Pande’s cellphone records show that right through the afternoon, from 2.30 to 9 pm, in fact, he was in regular touch with two police officers in charge of Naroda and Gulbarga Society where the day’s second massacre took place.

And during the last half hour of the massacre, he received a call from VHP state general secretary and riot-accused Jaideep Patel.

Story continues below this ad

Still, Pande deposed to the Nanavati-Shah Commission that he had not been ‘‘receiving any information regarding the serious incidents which followed after 2.30 pm…’’

Another point on which Pande claimed memory loss was the meeting called by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the night of the Sabarmati attack, hours after the VHP and the BJP had declared a bandh for the next day.

Once again, cell phone records fill the missing blanks. They show that he got several calls from the Chief Minister’s office throughout the day and in the hours leading up to the meeting. The people doing the calling? Modi’s PS Tanmay Mehta and his additional principal secretary Anil Mukhim.

Excerpts of his phone log:

FEBRUARY 27, 2002:

	RECALLING THE CALLING

	• When contacted at his residence in Delhi, former Ahmedabad police chief P C Pande said: ‘‘I would not like to comment on anything.’’ Pande, who was moved to the CBI after his stint as Ahmedadad Commissioner, was recently moved out by the Government. The Government was acting on a commitment it gave to the Supreme Court on a PIL challenging his appointment to the agency.

• 8.53 am (within an hour of Godhra attack): Pande, who is at his residence, receives a call from then MoS (Home) Gordhan Zadafia.

Story continues below this ad

• 11.05 am: Pande is at his office and receives a call from then DGP K Chakravarthy.

• 11.38 am: Chakravarthy calls again.

• 12.48 pm: Chakravarthy calls again.

• 1.08 pm: Pande calls then Ahmedabad District Collector Srinivas.

• 1.53 pm: Pande receives a call from Zadafia and speaks for 109 seconds.

• 2.59 pm: Pande receives a call from Tanmay Mehta, CM Narendra Modi’s personal assistant.

• 3.35 pm: Pande receives acall from then additional principal secretary to chief minister, Anil Mukhim.

Story continues below this ad

• 3.36 pm: Pande receives a call from Mehta. Half a minute later, Mukhim calls again.

• 3.40 pm: Pande receives a call from Minister Zadafia.

• 3.50 pm: Pande receives a call from DGP Chakravarthy.

• 5.02 pm: Pande receives a call from Mukhim. He returns the call after a minute.

• 5.28 pm: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy and speaks for 107 seconds.

• 6.03 pm: Pande receives a call from Mumbai and speaks for 154 seconds.

• 7.09 pm: Pande calls Mukhim and speaks for 83 seconds.

Story continues below this ad

• At 7.48 pm and 8.14 pm Pande receives two calls from the District Collector.

• 8.26 pm: Pande receives a call from Sanjay Bhavsar, OSD to CM.

• 9.13: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy and speaks for 52 seconds.

• 9.18 pm and 9.19 pm: Pande receives calls from Zadafia.

• 9.42 pm: Pande has left the city for Gandhinagar and is half way through.

FEBRUARY 28, 2002:

Story continues below this ad

• 12.35 am: Pande returns from Gandhinagar and heads straight for his office. He stays there till around 1 am.

• 8.12 am: Pande is back in office and receives a call from Chakravarthy.

• 8.50 am: Pande calls Cha-kravarthy.

• 9.30 am: Chakravarthy calls Pande and speaks for 126 seconds.

• 9.44 am: Pande receives a call from then Joint Commissioner of Police (Sector II) M K Tandon. Three minutes later, Pande is on his way to Sola Civil Hospital.

• 10.56 am: Pande returns to the Police Commissionerate.

• 11.05 am: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy. (By this time mobs have taken to streets. According to police records, the attack on Gulbarg Society started at 10.30 am while it started at 11 am at Naroda-Patiya.)

• 11.31 am: Pande receives call from the office of Zadafia.

Story continues below this ad

• 11.40 am: Pande receives a call from Tanmay Mehta, Narendra Modi’s PA.

• 11.43 am: Pande receives a call from Tandon, who has already reached the Meghaninagar area (where Gulbarg Society is).

• 11.56 am: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy.

• 12.06 pm: Pande calls Tandon and speaks for 75 seconds. Three minutes after this call, Tandon leaves Meghaninagar.

• 12.37 pm: Pande receives a call from Tandon. By this time curfew has been imposed in the city.

• 1.21 pm: Pande receives a call from Mehta.

• 1.22 pm: Pande receives a call from Tandon.

Story continues below this ad

• 1.45 pm: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy and speaks for 116 seconds.

• 1.56 pm: Pande receives a call from the office of state minister Narottam Patel and speaks for 125 seconds

• 2.02 pm: Pande receives a call from Tandon and speaks for 125 seconds.

• 2.12 pm: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy.

• 2.25 pm: Pande rceives a call from Tandon.

• 2.53 pm: Pande receives a call from Zadafia.

• 3.09 pm: Pande receives a call from then state health minister Ashok Bhatt.

Story continues below this ad

• 3.16 pm: Pande calls then Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) P B Gondia, under whose jurisdiction Gulbarg and Naroda-Patiya localities fall.

• 3.22 pm: Pande receives a call from city MLA and state minister Kaushik Patel and speaks for 60 seconds.

• 3.38 pm: Pande receives a call from Mehta.

• 3.54 pm: Pande calls Gondia.

• 3.57 pm: Pande receives a call from Mehta.

• 3.59 pm: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy. Minutes later, Chakravarthy is at Pande’s office.

• 5.16 pm: Pande receives a call from Zadafia, who has just left the Police Commissionerate.

• 5.17 pm: Pande receives a call from a cellphone registered in the name of A P Patel of General Administration Department, Govt of Gujarat.

• 5.50 pm: Pande receives a call from Tandon.

• 6.31 pm: Pande receives a call from the official residence of city MLA and then state Health Minister Ashok Bhatt and speaks for 232 seconds.

• 6.51 pm: Pande receives a call from Chakravarthy, who is by then at Gandhinagar.

• 7.09 pm: Pande reaches the Meghaninagar area.

• 7.11 pm: Pande receives a call from Zadafia.