Yesterday, his refrain to the Nanavati-Shah commission probing the Gujarat riots was: ‘‘I can’t recall anything, I have to check records.’’ Today, P C Pande, who was Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police during the riots, said that a meeting called by Chief Minister Narendra Modi on February 27, 2002—the night of the Sabarmati attack—did not discuss its potential fallout.Questioned by Mukul Sinha, an advocate for the Jan Sangharsh Samiti, on the agenda of that meeting, Pande, who is now Additional Director with the CBI, said he couldn’t recall the issues discussed.The state government had ‘‘not discussed preventive steps to be taken to counter any attack on minorities’’ in the wake of the Godhra incident, he said. Pande admitted that on February 28, then Health Minister Ashok Bhatt had visited his office for 10 minutes. ‘‘(The next day), former Defence Minister George Fernandes, then minister of state for defence Harin Pathak and Ashok Bhatt came to the Commissionerate to supervise Army deployment in the city.’’ When questioned about the Gulbarg Colony massacre, Pande said he had never met former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was burnt alive on February 28. ‘‘I do not remember talking to Ehsan Jafri and had never met him,’’ said the officer, who was informed that Jafri’s wife Zakiya Jafri in her affidavit to the commission had said that Pande had assured her of help. Pande, whose deposition concluded today, was also asked why he did not protest when the then DGP K Chakravarthi ‘‘took over’’ his office in April 2002 as there is a provision in the Bombay Police Act that no one can take over a Police Commissioner’s job till he is removed. Pande said he was not aware of the said provision and that he did not know why the decision was taken for the DGP to operate from his office. ‘‘If there are orders for a senior officer to operate from my office, I cannot defy these,’’ he said. Asked about an application he is said to have sent to the former Additional Chief Secretary (Home) saying he was not able to do his duty effectively owing to continuous interference from VHP and Bajrang dal activists, Pande said he had no memory of such a letter and could only comment after he had seen it.
