Cell records tell riots story

Cellphone records during the massacre clearly establish that police had moved away from Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gam and Gulbarg Society at the peak of the carnage, reports Rathin Das.

The group representing post-Godhra riot survivors told the Nanavati-Shah Commission on Friday that cellphone records during the massacre clearly establish that police had moved away from Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gam and Gulbarg Society at the peak of the carnage.

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"The phone records reveal the nexus between politicians, rioters and the Gujarat police," Mukul Sinha, an advocate from NGO Jan Sangharsh Manch, told the inquiry panel conducting a hearing on the cellphone records present in the CDs submitted to the commission by CBI officer Rahul Sharma.

Reiterating his demand to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi along with six others, Sinha also named then Home Minister Gordhan Zadaphia and said the records showed that prime accused in the Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam massacres were in touch with the minister.

Accused Bipin Panchal (in Naroda Patiya) was in constant touch with Zadaphia from February 28 to March 7, 2002, he said.

"A person who is an absconder, what has he to do with a state home minister. Another Naroda Patiya accused and secretary of the VHP, Jaydeep Patel, had rung up Zadaphia 18 times on March 1, 2002."

But the government lawyers, the BJP and VHP have been saying the records prove little as the cellphones could have been used by family members. However, it did not occur to anyone why the ministers and IPS officers had handed over the government-provided cellphones to their families at a time when the city was burning.