Gujarat riots -- Diary missing, case against ex-ministers off track

Gujarat riots -- Diary missing, case against ex-ministers off track
JOYDEEP RAY

AHMEDABAD, JAN 10: Former Union minister Harin Pathak and former Gujarat minister Ashok Bhatt, who had resigned following framing of charges against them in a murder case, may now breathe easy with vital documents, including the crucial case diary and the original First Information Report (FIR) in the case, reported missing.

The case pertains to the murder of head constable Lakshman Desai during communal riots here in 1985. It is scheduled to come up for hearing at the Gujarat High Court, where Ladli Desai, widow of Lakshman, proposes to file a third-party application seeking the court’s permission to be a party to the case fearing disposal of the case by the state government.

Since the case diary, which included statements of eye-witnesses, cannot be reconstructed, and even the counterfoil of the original FIR missing from police records, there may be little evidence left for the courts to examine.

The FIR in the case was lodged by then Deputy Commissioner of police J. Mahapatra. He had named Pathak, Bhatt and Kiran Shah, brother of state Transport Minister Bimal Shah, as the accused along with seven others. After a day, then Home Minister Amarsinh Choudhury had handed over the investigation to Crime Branch. Within stipulated 90 days, ACP (Crime) P.C. Ganetra had filed the chargesheet against the accused. More than 20 witnesses were examined by Ganetra and other police officials. Accordingly, a ‘panchnama’ was prepared by the police. All these documents were the contents of the original case diary, which is now reported missing.

Consequently, Lalubhai Patel, Public Prosecutor (PP) in the case, remains in the dark about details of the investigation in the case, the charges and examination reports of the witnesses of the incident.

‘‘Since I have never seen the original case papers, it will be very difficult for me to argue the case,’’ Patel said on Tuesday.

Crime Branch officials claim they had handed over the documents long ago to the Public Prosecutor attached with Metropolitan Magistrate’s court No. 11 and ‘‘do not have further responsibility’’.

Records with court no. 11 clearly show that the entire case diary was handed over to the then PP at the Sessions Court on July 25, 1986.

The Public Prosecutor was supposed to hand over it to his successor. What happened during the intervening period is not clear. The Public Prosecutor, who was handed over the documents, died and his next of kin say that all documents were handed over to the department concerned.

Sources in the Sessions Court said that in 1986, Babubhai Thakore and Naresh Thakore, two of the accused in the murder case, filed a petition in the high court when the case diary was brought out from the Sessions Court. Since then, it has never come back.

‘‘Perhaps, the papers have been missing from custody of the then PP or somebody responsible else as since then we did not find those papers at Sessions Court,’’ the source said.

‘‘There is no possibility that it is with us as the case has been shifted to Sessions Court long ago,’’ said H.B. Chouhan, PP of Court no 11.

Advocate B.M. Gupta, who has been closely monitoring the proceedings of the case, has demanded a CBI inquiry.

‘‘I am going to file a writ petition in the high court, seeking intervention to hand over the investigation to CBI, which alone can trace out the papers. Someone has intentionally hidden the papers to save the accused,’’ Gupta alleged.