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Intelligence chief who had warned Gujarat government transferred

The Gujarat government has once again shown its combative mood by transferring G C Raigar, additional director general of police (intelligence).

"This is not just a reshuffle," a senior police officer said. "It's pre-emptive action by the Modi government. Raigar's presence [in the state intelligence unit] was not conducive to the political thinking of Chief Minister Narendra Modi."

According to information made available to rediff.com, Raigar's office had alerted the Gujarat government, the senior superintendent of police, Faizabad, and the inspector general of police, Lucknow, about the movements of karsevaks well before the Godhra attack. It had also mentioned in mail and fax messages details like the number of karsevaks travelling to Ayodhya, the names of their leaders, and details of the trains they would be taking. Raigar's office has copies of this correspondence.

Information about the first lot of karsevaks was sent to the assistant chief secretary (home) on February 12 by P B Upadhyaya, another intelligence officer. Upadhyaya had also clearly mentioned in one of his letters that "if law and order is not maintained, possibly thousands of innocent people's lives will be at risk. And any undesirable incident at Ayodhya will echo in the whole of the state [Gujarat]. The propaganda of the VHP on the mandir issue is hurting communal feelings. Therefore it's necessary to take action to prevent the post-1992 situation."

In other words, the intelligence wing of the Gujarat police has documentary evidence that shows that the Modi government failed to provide security to the karsevaks or take other preventive measures despite repeated warnings.

The karsevaks who were burnt alive at Godhra on February 27 were led by Prahlad Patel, Bajrang Dal chief of Mehsana district. Patel died on April 3. The information about him and his band of karsevaks leaving the state was also sent to the police stations concerned.

Another point of disagreement between Raigar and the government was their perception of the Godhra incident. They differed on why and how it happened.

Communal passions were inflamed when news of the carnage at Godhra spread, more so when politicians began claiming that the attack was pre-planned and Pakistan was behind it. But the intelligence wing of the police has so far found not one bit of evidence to support this hypothesis. On the contrary all the information it has collected suggests just the opposite, that it was a spontaneous act of fury.

A third point of disagreement between Raigar and the government arose on March 6 when intelligence officers objected to a report in a leading Gujarati daily, Sandesh. The report was published on the front page with a banner headline that screamed 'Hindu upar khatro' (or 'Hindus are in danger').

Sandesh reported that Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Bhatt had said in an intelligence report that Hindu lives would be in danger once Hajj pilgrims began returning from Saudi Arabia. On the same day, an English daily published a report in which Raigar was said to have criticised Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police P C Pandey. Both officers denied having given any such interviews to anyone. Raigar also denied that there was ever any threat perceived from the return of the Hajj pilgrims.

Raigar was not ready to take the blame for such twisted reports, which played havoc with the psyche of the people. He refused to own up to them. Since then his transfer has been imminent.

Along with Raigar, the state government on Sunday transferred four other Indian Police Service officers with immediate effect.

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