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Journalism of Courage
AHMEDABAD, Aug 1: Investigation of two incidents give clear ground for suspicion that saffron forces are trying to prolong the communal flare-up in the city. The facts gathered by police in an arson case and an alleged stabbing, both on Saturday, point to the involvement of the Bajrang Dal and a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA.
Taking serious note of the incidents, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P.C. Pandey has handed over the inquiry to the city crime branch.
In the arson case, none other than the city unit president (according to the police commissioner) of Bajrang Dal, Harshad Gilitwala, has been implicated. Gilitwala and an accomplice were arrested in connection with the gutting of Bhagyodaya Restaurant near Gurukul crossroads.
An hour or two later, Gilitwala and one Bhaskar Bhatt were admitted to V.S. Hospital with burns, and told hospital authorities they were burnt at a fire at Bhagyodaya Restaurant. Gilitwala has 80 per cent burns on his body.
The restaurant owner Indag Ibrahimbhai, who was behind the counter when the arsonists struck, is also in hospital with 74 per cent burns. Indag, Yusuf Rasulbhai, who filed the complaint, and other eye-witnesses said it was difficult to identify the rioters individually, as there was a crowd.
However, the witnesses had all noticed two of the arsonists getting burnt. Police are going by this, and by the fact that Gilitwala and Bhatt had told doctors they were burnt at the restaurant, in arresting the two.
In the other incident, a 25-year-old youth who had filed a police complaint that he had been stabbed while passing by Bakri Pol in Kalupur, later changed his version. Police said the youth, Prakas Panchal, had confessed that he had filed the complaint at the instance of former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Bhupendra Khatri. Although Panchal has not said so, police believe his wound is self-inflicted.
These two incidents are not the first instances in which saffron forces have been implicated in the recent riots. The FIR filed for the violence that took place on July 24 in Gomtipur names a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activist and a BJP worker.
The Congress, which has always been alleging that this round of rioting has been started by saffron forces, has demanded a judicial inquiry into these two cases. Its state president C.D. Patel also alleged that police was being pressurised to make out the Bhagyodaya case as one of accidental fire, caused by short-circuit.
Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya only said, “Whatever the police says is correct.”
But Bajrang Dal state president Ranchhodbhai Bharwad denied that Harshad Gilitwala was in any way connected to the Dal. However, another senior Bajrang Dal leader confirmed that Gilitwala is the Kalupur-Dariapur unit president of the Dal.
Meanwhile, according to a police press note, curfew in the Karanj and Shahpur police station areas were to be relaxed from 6 am to 10 pm for all in view of the peace prevailing in the city.
