The Janasangharsh Manch and the Gujarat Congress asked the G T Nanavati and K G Shah Commission probing Gujarat riots to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi, ministers, CMO and police officials, alleging that the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat were a result of a collusion between them.

Dr Mukul Sinha, Manch advocate, based his submissions on the evidence extracted from CDs, containing records of mobile phone calls, placed on record by IPS official Rahul Sharma. Presenting an analysis of the telephone records, giving details of time and location of various politicians, police officials and VHP leaders when Ahmedabad was burning, Dr Sinha claimed that prima facie evidence suggested that the riots were a result of a conspiracy.

He claimed that the manner in which the dead bodies of Godhra victims were brought in haste followed by the funeral procession in Ahmedabad indicated a clear nexus and an intention to spark violence. Dr Sinha claimed that it also implicated it was under the chief minister’s directions that the bodies were brought to Ahmedabad.

CDs missing
Meanwhile, the state government has claimed that they were not in possession of the CDs containing telephone calls.

The state government also requested the Commission to send the CDs to the FSL for extracting data and checking the originality of the CDs.

State government advocate Arvind Pandya has also raised questions on Sharma's integrity and originality of the CDs in question.

Mr Pandya claimed that a departmental procedure and findings instituted to verify the claim of the existence of the CDs and its originality had concluded that then Joint Commissioner P P Pandey had never received any CDs in question from mobile companies or seen them as claimed by Sharma.

Manch advocate Sinha said Rahul Sharma was a witness of the state government  three years ago.
“If they suspected Sharma then, they should have done so at that time and declared him hostile,” he claimed. He claimed that this raised a serious question on witness protection.

Manch sources hinted that the original CDs may already have been destroyed to ensure that politicians, police officials and VHP-Bajrang Dal members are not implicated.