Pandya’s role in riots my motive: Murder suspect

‘‘He was a leader who during the riots went to the police control room and removed security from Muslim areas so that Hindus could...

‘‘He was a leader who during the riots went to the police control room and removed security from Muslim areas so that Hindus could attack the Muslims. On his orders, the security was withdrawn from the Muslim areas so that Hindus could enter into those areas and indulge in rape, arson and murder. He comes for jogging in a park.’’

This extract from the interrogation report of Asghar Ali, the alleged assassin of former Gujarat Home minister Haren Pandya, comes closest to establishing that the assassination was a reprisal killing.

Gujarat chargesheets 21 pota accused
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat police on Saturday filed chargesheets against 21 people including four isi agents, allegedly involved in killing of Haren Pandya and accused in “large-scale conspiracy to foment terrorist activities in the state” including assassination of top political leaders and industrialists to avenge post-Godhra communal violence. — Agencies Story continues below this ad

And it is Ali’s interrogation report, accessed by The Sunday Express that the CBI will be relying on when it files its chargesheet in a designated court in Ahmedabad, before the expiry of the deadline on Tuesday.

Ali, who allegedly shot Pandya on March 26 is to be chargesheeted under POTA along with nine co-accused.

Four others, including mastermind Mufti Sufiyaan, will be named as absconding accused. The chargesheet will also detail how Ali and others crossed over to Pakistan for arms training, purchased the weapons and identified Pandya when he went for his jog.

Ten days after the killing, the gang left Ahmedabad and it was on April 17, that the CBI arrested Asghar Ali and Mohammad Abdul Bari in Hyderabad. Officials say it was the surveillance of mobile phones of some young boys who had returned to Ahmedabad after visiting Pakistan that gave the CBI the breakthrough in the case.

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This is the second POTA charegsheet to be filed by the CBI in a year.

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More

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