Gulbarg Society massacre
Encyclopedia
The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on February 28, 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a mob attacked the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim
neighbourhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad
. Most of the houses were burnt, and at least 35 victims including a former Congress
Member of Parliament
Ehsan Jafri
, were burnt alive, while 31 others went missing after the incident, later presumed dead, bringing the total of the dead to 69.
In response to the complaint filed by Zakia Jaffri, widow of Ehsan Jafri, the Supreme Court of India
on April 27, 2009, appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by RK Raghavan, a former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) in the case. It reopened nine crucial riot cases. Seven years after the incident, in February 2009, Erda, the Deputy Superintendent of Police with the Gujarat Police
at the time was arrested on charges of dereliction of duty and for tampering of evidence, as some survivors alleged that he not only allowed the killings to happen but also helped rioters to burn the dead bodies. The SIT finally submitted its report on May 14, 2010 to the apex court registry of the Supreme Court.
The Society with most of house damaged or burnt was later abandoned, of the 18 houses which were burnt, only one has been repaired, though none of the families returned, though some of them congregate, each year on the anniversary of the event and offer prayers.
-dominated Chamanpura area, and began shouting slogans. Many of residents took refuge in the home of a former Congress MP in his 70s, Ehsan Jafri
, who according to eye witnesses kept on frantically calling police and political set-up for help, in vain. By noon, the mob turned violent, it breached the boundary wall and started torching houses, and attacking residents, and in the next six hours 69 were dead, including Ehasan Jafri, who was hacked to death and burnt alive as were at least 35 other victims, at least 85 others were injured.
, Gulbarg Society case, the Naroda Patiya incident and the Sardarpura case in Mehsana district be handed over to CBI.
The Supreme Court, on March 26, 2008, ordered the Narendra Modi government to re-investigate 10 cases in the 2002 Gujarat riots, including the Godhra train burning
and subsequent Godhra
riots where 81 people were killed, Gulbarg Society where 68 were killed, Naroda Patia where over 100 were killed, Sardarpur where 34 were killed and Best Bakery case
where 14 people were burnt alive. Zakiya Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri
, who was burnt alive on the day, first made the complaint on June 8, 2006 alleging that the police had not registered the FIRs against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
, and 62 others including several ministers and alleging a conspiracy to allow the massacre of Muslims, which involved instructing policemen and bureaucrats not to respond to pleas for help from Muslims being attacked during the riots. The complaint included VHP leaders Praveen Togadia and Jaideep Patel, DGP of the state PC Pande for abetting the riots. She then approached the Gujarat High Court
with her complaint, which on November 3, 2007, refused to entertain her plea, and instead asked her to present the case before magistrate’s court. Subsequently, she approached the Supreme Court of India
, which on April 27, 2009 appointed a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by R K Raghavan, a former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to investigate into these cases, and asked the SIT to look into her complaint of alleged collusion of the state machinery and the rioters over the two days of Gujarat riots.
In March 2009, Congress leader Meghsingh Chaudhary at the instance of Special Investigative Team (SIT) was arrested for active participation in the Gulbarg Society massacre. Then in March 2010, it summoned Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
to give an explanation regarding accusations against him in the murder of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jaffri, who was burnt alive, along with nearly 70 other people in the Gulbarg Society. He appeared before the SIT on Mar 27, 2010. Earlier, R B Sreekumar, who was Additional DG Intelligence at the time, deposed before a commission that ministers and police were "deliberately inactive during the riots" and two eye-witnesses Roopa Modi and Imtiyaz Pathan testified against Modi in the trial court. Imtiaz who lost six members of his family during the massacre, was the one to give the first eyewitness account in the trial which started in September 2009, after being held up for 7 years. He told the court that when a mob started gathering outside Gulbarg Society on February 28, MP Jafri called Chief Minister Narendra Modi for help, yet the police refused to come for help. He identified 20 of the 100 accused, arrested in the case. However SIT could not found any evidence or a record of phone call made by Ehsan Jafri to Narendra Modi. In all, the eyewitness who appeared before the SIT in December 2009, namely, Imtiyaz Pathan, Saeedkhan Pathan, Roopa Mody, Saira Sandhi and Rafiq Pathan named joint commissioner of police MK Tandon and Meghaninagar police inspector ND Parmar, Manish Patel alias Splendor, Mahendra Pukhraj, Jagroopsinh Rajput, Inio Harijan, Babu Marwadi and Rajesh Jinger, a constable residing in the same area, as accused.
In March 2010, Gulbarg Society case trial was stayed by the Supreme Court after the special public prosecutor R K Shah resigned after accusing the trial judge and SIT of being "soft on the accused". He alleged that, "..The SIT officers are unsympathetic towards witnesses, they try to browbeat them and don’t share evidence with the prosecution as they are supposed to do." Later, activist Teesta Setalvad in an affidavit filed before the Supreme court on April 24, 2010, showed the phone record analysis which indicated that "Ahmedabad police commissioner P C Pande had spoken to joint commissioner of police M K Tandon six times during the period when the latter was present at Gulbarg Society and the mob was growing restive. Though Tandon was accompanied by “striking force” equipped to disperse a riotous mob, he left Gulbarg Society without taking any corrective action and his departure led to the massacre in which 69 persons, including former Congress MP and Zakia’s husband Ehsan Jafri, were massacred".SIT found that the charges against P C Pandey were false and accused Teesta Setalvad of cooking up macabre tales of killings.
On May 14, 2010, the Special Investigative Team (SIT) finally submitted its report to the registry in a sealed cover as directed by the apex court bench of Justice D K Jain, Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Aftab Alam. Prior to this, the SIT team had requested for more time as it wanted to question VHP International president, Praveen Togadia, which it did on May 11, 2010.
New Channel showed footage of a sting operation carried out by Tehelka
magazine, wherein 14 VHP or Bajrang Dal
activists, including, Madan Chawal, a Gulbarg Society massacre accused, and a Bharatiya Janata Party
MLA from Godhra
, Haresh Bhatt who was national vice-president of Bajrang Dal during the riots, were shown talking about the execution of the killings . The investigative journalists' reports were finally published in the November 3, 2007 issue of Tehelka as The Truth: Gujarat 2002 – Tehelka report.
directed, Parzania
(2005), starring Naseeruddin Shah
and Sarika
as the Parsi
couple, Rupa and Dara Mody of the Gulbarg Society, whose 10-year old son Azhar Mody went missing after a mob attack. Subsequently, at the 2006 National Film Awards
the film won two awards, the National Film Award for Best Actress
for Sarika, as well as award for National Film Award for Best Directing
. The film was not released in Gujarat, as the cinema owners refused to screen it fearing backlash.
23°2′52"N 72°36′48.61"E
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
neighbourhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
. Most of the houses were burnt, and at least 35 victims including a former Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Ehsan Jafri
Ehsan Jafri
Ehsan Jafri was an ex-Parliamentarian who was burnt to death in 2002 in his own home by a group of unknown rioters during the Gujarat riots of 2002. He had been a noted trade unionist, and was one of the top party officials of the Congress party in Gujarat...
, were burnt alive, while 31 others went missing after the incident, later presumed dead, bringing the total of the dead to 69.
In response to the complaint filed by Zakia Jaffri, widow of Ehsan Jafri, the Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
on April 27, 2009, appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by RK Raghavan, a former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation
Central Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation is a government agency of India that serves as a criminal investigation body, national security agency and intelligence agency. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941...
(CBI) in the case. It reopened nine crucial riot cases. Seven years after the incident, in February 2009, Erda, the Deputy Superintendent of Police with the Gujarat Police
Gujarat Police
The Gujarat Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Gujarat in India. The Gujarat Police has its headquarters in Gandhinagar, the state capital....
at the time was arrested on charges of dereliction of duty and for tampering of evidence, as some survivors alleged that he not only allowed the killings to happen but also helped rioters to burn the dead bodies. The SIT finally submitted its report on May 14, 2010 to the apex court registry of the Supreme Court.
The Society with most of house damaged or burnt was later abandoned, of the 18 houses which were burnt, only one has been repaired, though none of the families returned, though some of them congregate, each year on the anniversary of the event and offer prayers.
February 28, 2002
Just a day after the 2002 Gujarat riots erupted, at 9 am on February 28, 2002, a frenzied mob started gathering outside the Gulbarg Society, a cluster of 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings housing upper middle class business families mostly belonging to Muslim community, in Ahmedabad city’s HinduHindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
-dominated Chamanpura area, and began shouting slogans. Many of residents took refuge in the home of a former Congress MP in his 70s, Ehsan Jafri
Ehsan Jafri
Ehsan Jafri was an ex-Parliamentarian who was burnt to death in 2002 in his own home by a group of unknown rioters during the Gujarat riots of 2002. He had been a noted trade unionist, and was one of the top party officials of the Congress party in Gujarat...
, who according to eye witnesses kept on frantically calling police and political set-up for help, in vain. By noon, the mob turned violent, it breached the boundary wall and started torching houses, and attacking residents, and in the next six hours 69 were dead, including Ehasan Jafri, who was hacked to death and burnt alive as were at least 35 other victims, at least 85 others were injured.
Aftermath
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) under JS Verma, said in June 2002, that it was "deeply disturbed by recent press reports stating that the chargesheets filed thus far in respect of the Gulbarg Society and Naroda Patia incidents lack credibility in as much as they are reported to depict the victims of violence as the provocateurs." NHRC had previously recommended that cases like Best Bakery caseBest Bakery case
The Best Bakery case was a legal case involving the burning down of the Best Bakery in Vadodara, India, on March 1, 2002...
, Gulbarg Society case, the Naroda Patiya incident and the Sardarpura case in Mehsana district be handed over to CBI.
The Supreme Court, on March 26, 2008, ordered the Narendra Modi government to re-investigate 10 cases in the 2002 Gujarat riots, including the Godhra train burning
Godhra Train Burning
The Godhra train burning was an incident in which a sleeper coach on a passenger train was set on fire in 2002 by Muslims in Godhra, Gujarat, India in a conspiracy...
and subsequent Godhra
Godhra
Godhra is a town and originally the name came from "Gou" which means "Cow" and "Dhara" which has two meanings: one in Sanskrit which means "Hold or Land" and the other in Hindi which means Flow. So, identically it means The Land of the Cow, a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of...
riots where 81 people were killed, Gulbarg Society where 68 were killed, Naroda Patia where over 100 were killed, Sardarpur where 34 were killed and Best Bakery case
Best Bakery case
The Best Bakery case was a legal case involving the burning down of the Best Bakery in Vadodara, India, on March 1, 2002...
where 14 people were burnt alive. Zakiya Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri
Ehsan Jafri
Ehsan Jafri was an ex-Parliamentarian who was burnt to death in 2002 in his own home by a group of unknown rioters during the Gujarat riots of 2002. He had been a noted trade unionist, and was one of the top party officials of the Congress party in Gujarat...
, who was burnt alive on the day, first made the complaint on June 8, 2006 alleging that the police had not registered the FIRs against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...
, and 62 others including several ministers and alleging a conspiracy to allow the massacre of Muslims, which involved instructing policemen and bureaucrats not to respond to pleas for help from Muslims being attacked during the riots. The complaint included VHP leaders Praveen Togadia and Jaideep Patel, DGP of the state PC Pande for abetting the riots. She then approached the Gujarat High Court
Gujarat High Court
The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960 after the state split from Bombay State.The seat of the court is Ahmedabad...
with her complaint, which on November 3, 2007, refused to entertain her plea, and instead asked her to present the case before magistrate’s court. Subsequently, she approached the Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
, which on April 27, 2009 appointed a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by R K Raghavan, a former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to investigate into these cases, and asked the SIT to look into her complaint of alleged collusion of the state machinery and the rioters over the two days of Gujarat riots.
In March 2009, Congress leader Meghsingh Chaudhary at the instance of Special Investigative Team (SIT) was arrested for active participation in the Gulbarg Society massacre. Then in March 2010, it summoned Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat.He was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar; and is a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since childhood, as also an active politician since early in life. He holds a masters degree in political...
to give an explanation regarding accusations against him in the murder of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jaffri, who was burnt alive, along with nearly 70 other people in the Gulbarg Society. He appeared before the SIT on Mar 27, 2010. Earlier, R B Sreekumar, who was Additional DG Intelligence at the time, deposed before a commission that ministers and police were "deliberately inactive during the riots" and two eye-witnesses Roopa Modi and Imtiyaz Pathan testified against Modi in the trial court. Imtiaz who lost six members of his family during the massacre, was the one to give the first eyewitness account in the trial which started in September 2009, after being held up for 7 years. He told the court that when a mob started gathering outside Gulbarg Society on February 28, MP Jafri called Chief Minister Narendra Modi for help, yet the police refused to come for help. He identified 20 of the 100 accused, arrested in the case. However SIT could not found any evidence or a record of phone call made by Ehsan Jafri to Narendra Modi. In all, the eyewitness who appeared before the SIT in December 2009, namely, Imtiyaz Pathan, Saeedkhan Pathan, Roopa Mody, Saira Sandhi and Rafiq Pathan named joint commissioner of police MK Tandon and Meghaninagar police inspector ND Parmar, Manish Patel alias Splendor, Mahendra Pukhraj, Jagroopsinh Rajput, Inio Harijan, Babu Marwadi and Rajesh Jinger, a constable residing in the same area, as accused.
In March 2010, Gulbarg Society case trial was stayed by the Supreme Court after the special public prosecutor R K Shah resigned after accusing the trial judge and SIT of being "soft on the accused". He alleged that, "..The SIT officers are unsympathetic towards witnesses, they try to browbeat them and don’t share evidence with the prosecution as they are supposed to do." Later, activist Teesta Setalvad in an affidavit filed before the Supreme court on April 24, 2010, showed the phone record analysis which indicated that "Ahmedabad police commissioner P C Pande had spoken to joint commissioner of police M K Tandon six times during the period when the latter was present at Gulbarg Society and the mob was growing restive. Though Tandon was accompanied by “striking force” equipped to disperse a riotous mob, he left Gulbarg Society without taking any corrective action and his departure led to the massacre in which 69 persons, including former Congress MP and Zakia’s husband Ehsan Jafri, were massacred".SIT found that the charges against P C Pandey were false and accused Teesta Setalvad of cooking up macabre tales of killings.
On May 14, 2010, the Special Investigative Team (SIT) finally submitted its report to the registry in a sealed cover as directed by the apex court bench of Justice D K Jain, Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Aftab Alam. Prior to this, the SIT team had requested for more time as it wanted to question VHP International president, Praveen Togadia, which it did on May 11, 2010.
Sting operation
In October 2007, the Aaj TakAaj Tak
Aaj Tak is a 24-hour Hindi news television channel owned by TV Today Network Ltd. Aaj Tak loosely translates as "Till Today" or "Up to the Minute". Watched by some 45 million viewers in India’s cable and satellite universe, Aaj Tak is one of India’s largest privately owned news channels...
New Channel showed footage of a sting operation carried out by Tehelka
Tehelka
Tehelka is an Indian weekly political magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal known for its undercover exposé style of journalism. Its cover price is Rs 20 per issue. The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com...
magazine, wherein 14 VHP or Bajrang Dal
Bajrang Dal
The Bajrang Dal , a hardline and militant Hindu organization in India, is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and is based on the ideology of Hindutva. Founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, India, it has since spread throughout India...
activists, including, Madan Chawal, a Gulbarg Society massacre accused, and a Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
MLA from Godhra
Godhra
Godhra is a town and originally the name came from "Gou" which means "Cow" and "Dhara" which has two meanings: one in Sanskrit which means "Hold or Land" and the other in Hindi which means Flow. So, identically it means The Land of the Cow, a municipality in Panchmahal district in Indian state of...
, Haresh Bhatt who was national vice-president of Bajrang Dal during the riots, were shown talking about the execution of the killings . The investigative journalists' reports were finally published in the November 3, 2007 issue of Tehelka as The Truth: Gujarat 2002 – Tehelka report.
In popular culture
Rahul DholakiaRahul Dholakia
Rahul Dholakia is an Indian film director-producer-screenwriter, most known for his National Film Award winning film, Parzania , prior to which he also made documentaries like Teenage Parents and New York Taxi Drivers.-Early life and education:Born in Mumbai, to Raksha and Parry Dholakia, an...
directed, Parzania
Parzania
Parzania is a 2007 Indian drama film co-written and directed by Rahul Dholakia; David N. Donihue is the other co-writer. The film featured Naseeruddin Shah and Sarika in the lead roles, while Corin Nemec and Raj Zutshi played supporting roles...
(2005), starring Naseeruddin Shah
Naseeruddin Shah
Naseeruddin Shah is an Indian / Bollywood film actor and director. He is considered to be one of the finest actors of Indian cinema. In 2003, the Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan for his contributions towards Indian cinema.-Early life:...
and Sarika
Sarika
Sarika was born on 3 June 1962 into a Maharashtrian family in New Delhi, India, and became an acclaimed National Award winning Indian actress.-Career:...
as the Parsi
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
couple, Rupa and Dara Mody of the Gulbarg Society, whose 10-year old son Azhar Mody went missing after a mob attack. Subsequently, at the 2006 National Film Awards
National Film Awards
The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it is administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorate of Film Festivals since 1973.Every year, a national panel...
the film won two awards, the National Film Award for Best Actress
National Film Award for Best Actress
The National Film Award for Best Actress is an honor presented annually at the National Film Awards of India to an actress who has delivered the best performance in a leading role within the Indian film industry...
for Sarika, as well as award for National Film Award for Best Directing
National Film Award for Best Directing
The National Film Award for Best Direction winners are given below. Satyajit Ray has been awarded the maximum number of times in this category....
. The film was not released in Gujarat, as the cinema owners refused to screen it fearing backlash.
External links
- A relentless hate campaign Frontline (magazine)Frontline (magazine)Frontline is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications from Chennai, India. Narasimhan Ram is the editor-in-chief of the magazine. As a current affairs magazine, it covers domestic and International news. Frontline gives a prominent place to various...
, May 2002 - Report based on SIT findings' at The Times of IndiaThe Times of IndiaThe Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
, April 2009 - Safehouse Of Horrors TehelkaTehelkaTehelka is an Indian weekly political magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal known for its undercover exposé style of journalism. Its cover price is Rs 20 per issue. The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com...
Nov 03, 2007
23°2′52"N 72°36′48.61"E