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RR RUEHCHI RUEHDBU RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHBI #0375/01 2580930
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150930Z SEP 09
FM AMCONSUL MUMBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7463
INFO RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCNIND/ALL INDO COLLECTIVE
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 2691

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. 
 
 
 
¶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