JUDICIAL REPORT FINDS GUJARAT POLICE GUILTY OF EXTRAJUDICIAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MUMBAI 000375 SENSITIVE SIPDIS PASS TO DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM ASEC PHUM IN KIRF PGOV SUBJECT: JUDICIAL REPORT FINDS GUJARAT POLICE GUILTY OF EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING OF MUMBAI TEENAGER REF: A. A: 2004 MUMBAI 1335 ¶B. B: 2007 MUMBAI 286 MUMBAI 00000375 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) SUMMARY: A recently leaked inquiry report by a district level judicial officer in Gujarat contended that the 2004 killing of several alleged terrorists had been staged by the Gujarat police, and that the victims had no terrorist links. The Government of Gujarat (GOG),led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister Narendra Modi, maintains that the alleged terrorists were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT),and challenged the report in the Gujarat High Court (GHC). This is the second major indictment of Modi's police for extra-judicial killings - a common police practice throughout India, for which few are brought to book - and will add to Modi's mounting legal troubles in his state. END SUMMARY The Incident -- One in a Series -------------- ¶2. (U) On June 15, 2004, Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old student at Mumbai's Khalsa College, and her boyfriend Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, were killed by Gujarat police along with two others also suspected of having terrorist links to Pakistan, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani (see ref A). The Gujarat police claimed that the victims were killed in a gun-fight, and were terrorists linked to Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) planning to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi. After Jahan's mother filed a petition requesting further investigation of the killings, in 2005, the Gujarat High Court appointed Judge S.P. Tamang of the Ahmedabad Magistrate's Court to conduct the judicial inquiry. Though his report had been completed several months ago, it was suddenly leaked to electronic media organizations on September 7, presumably by CM Modi's detractors. The report contends that the four victims had no connection to LeT, and that senior police officers abducted the victims and staged the encounter to curry favor with CM Modi and to secure job promotions. The report cites inconsistencies in the police version of the incident, and points out that no rounds were fired from the rusted weapons the police claimed were found with the alleged terrorists. The report, however, does not allege prior knowledge or direction by the CM. �A; ¶3. (SBU) On September 9, the GOG announced its rejection of the Tamang report in its entirety. The GOG also obtained a stay on the release of the Tamang report from the Gujarat High Court. This was, at best, a rear-guard action, as the contents were already in the public domain. The Ishrat Jahan killing is one of a number of alleged extrajudicial killings carried out by the Gujarat police in recent years (see ref B). In another on-going Supreme Court case against the Gujarat Police, filed by Bollywood personality Javed Akthar and others, the petitioners list 11 encounter deaths between 2002 and 2005. On September 9, the Supreme Court commenced hearings to investigate the encounter killing of Pillai, Jahan's boyfriend, based upon a petition filed by Pillai's father. In each case, Gujarat police gunned down Muslim assailants who, they allege, intended to kill the CM. BJP and Congress Face-off on the Issue -------------- ¶4. (U) On September 8, GOG spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas distributed a Union Home Ministry affidavit from 2006 which contended that the four were linked to the LeT. Reportedly, the Home Ministry affidavit used published information from Pakistani newspapers and a tribute to Ishrat on the LeT website, which was later retracted. While not denying the validity of the affidavit, the Congress Party has sought to make political capital out of the latest revelations. Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram criticized the GOG on September 11, suggesting it was trying to use the affidavit to hide the excesses of its police: "If a state government acts as though intelligence inputs are evidence or conclusive proof, I am sorry for that state government. ~ Certainly no one suggested that based on an intelligence input you should kill someone." Union Law Minister MUMBAI 00000375 002.2 OF 002 Veerappa Moily of the Congress hinted on September 8 that Modi could be embroiled in further controversies: "There are many such cases which are coming up now. If more investigations are conducted, more skeletons may tumble," he said. Implications for CM Modi -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Religious rights activist Irfan Engineer told Congenoffs that the urban middle-classes and higher-castes are unlikely to desert CM Modi over these revelations. They are enamored of Gujarat's economic progress, and are not disturbed by the possible extrajudicial killings by the police, especially of alleged Muslim terrorists. In contrast, Muslim business leaders in Gujarat told Congenoff that Modi was a "Teflon don", lamenting that Modi always manages to escape responsibility for violence that happens in the state. Pressure to ensure accountability, however, is mounting Gujarat. The Supreme Court ordered that two cases from the 2002 violence be transferred to Maharashtra to avoid judicial bias in Gujarat. The Court also established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in March 2008 which is re-investigating several of the most egregious anti-Muslim massacres that were poorly investigated by the Gujarat police. Moreover, in August, the Supreme Court awarded compensation to the brother of Sohrabuddin, another victim of a staged encounter by the Gujarat police (ref B). Only recently, at the insistence of the Indian Supreme Court, have the police and judiciary shown more inclination to investigate and hear some of the riot-related cases. Recently, the Gujarat High Court ruled in favor of the SIT when a Gujarat BJP politician tried to block the SIT's inquiry. ¶6. (SBU) Comment: Political Commentator Vir Sanghvi has pointed out that many Indians, including Modi's constituents in Gujarat, view so-called "encounter killings" as a favorable form of justice in a country where the judicial system is notoriously slow, inefficient and backlogged with cases. And indeed, across India there is strong support for the police to take the law into their own hands in cases of alleged serious criminals and terrorists. That said, the Ishrat Jahan revelations raise more questions about the anti-Muslim bias of elements in CM Modi's administration, and especially the police. For years, the Gujarat police and state judiciary have shown systemic bias against Muslims by stalling many of the cases related to the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim violence. With the Supreme Court continuing to focus on the performance of the Gujarat judiciary, it is likely that CM Modi's legal troubles will increase in the future. End Comment. FOLMSBEE