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Nanavati Commission releases in-camera deposition on CDs

AHMEDABAD: The G. T. Nanavati and K. G. Shah judicial commission, probing the Godhra train carnage and the subsequent communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, has released the in-camera deposition made by the former crime branch police officer Rahul Sharma, who submitted copies of two compact discs containing mobile phone numbers of some senior political leaders, bureaucrats and police officers.

On Thursday, the text of his deposition was given to T.S. Nanavati, State government pleader, and Mukul Sinha, advocate for the Jansangharsha Manch representing the riot victims. They were told to submit individual analyses on February 27, after studying Mr. Sharma’s five-page deposition in a question-answer form.Before the copies of the text were given, the government pleader again contested Dr. Sinha’s demand for summoning Chief Minister Narendra Modi and some of his former Cabinet colleagues as well as some senior bureaucratic and police officers, who were found in the CDs to have been in constant touch with some alleged rioters even as the carnage was on in Ahmedabad and some other parts of the State on February 28, 2002, and subsequent days.

The pleader reiterated that the CDs gave only “skeletal materials” about the location of the mobile phones of some political leaders and bureaucratic and police officers, and did not provide sufficient evidence to summon Mr. Modi and others.

Describing the government’s objections to the demand for issuing summons was an “afterthought,” Dr. Sinha said it should have contradicted the authenticity of the CDs when Mr Sharma submitted them. If the government had any doubt about their authenticity, its counsel should question Mr. Sharma and should not raise objections to his demand.

It was on Dr. Sinha’s plea that copies of text of Mr. Sharma’s deposition were released to both parties. The commission questioned Mr. Sharma in-camera soon after he had submitted the CDs about 18 months ago but the contents were not made public.

Mr. Sharma, in his deposition, made it clear that the requisition for the CDs was sent to the then two main mobile phone service providers in the State through official channel. He had asked for details of the phone call data at the instance of the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner P. C. Pandey, now Director-General of Police, and the then crime branch head A. K. Surolia. Setting at rest speculation on the authenticity of the two CDs, Mr. Sharma said the original copies were kept with Mr. P.C. Pandey, who had taken over as the crime branch head from Mr. Surolia.

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Nanavati Commission releases in-camera deposition on CDs

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