"Did Rahul Sharma, the then DCP crime branch, submit the phone call entries of political bigwigs and policemen being contacted by Ahesan Jafri in vain with witnesses' testimonies relevant to the Gulbarg investigation?" Asked Teesta Setalvad, activist and member of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) while presenting an application before special investigation team (SIT) through advocate SM Vora, questioning the reason why these records weren't being included in the investigation process.
Teesta's application also assumes importance when the SIT has made Rahul Sharma a witness in the Naroda Gaam case, but have suspiciously avoided bringing in the crucial phone records and their analysis in the Gulbarg massacre.
Teesta has been demanding to include the phone records collected by Rahul Sharma in aftermath of 2002 riots. The CJP has also demanded to make Rahul Sharma a witness in the Gulbarg society massacre case.
Earlier, Rahul Sharma had, in his deposition before Shah-Nanavati Commission on October 30, 2004, stated that for limited period of time he was the investigating officer of Gulbarg society massacre, Naroda Gaam and Naroda Patia cases. However, he was replaced later by CP KR Kaushik. Sharma had written a letter to commissioner of police when he found the chargesheets inconsistent with the FIRs of these incidents. The CJP has also demanded to include this letter as evidence.
The CJP has also demanded to include Rahul Sharma's CD containing the phone records details as evidence which he had collected from February 25 to March 4, 2002 through cellular companies AT&T (now Idea) and Cellforce (now Vodafone) and the copies of the CD which he had submitted to the Shah-Nanavati commission. The CD also contains 93 seconds phone conversation details between the then minister, Maya Kodnani and then Meghananinagar PI, KJ Erda on the morning of February 28.
The CJP have been urging the SIT to investigate these phone records since May 2008, but the SIT has refused to bring this on the records claiming that the cellular companies do not store the phone records details for more than six months or a year.
Teesta's demand also assumes importance in the wake of the recent deposition by Imitiaz Khan Pathan and Rupa Mody, eyewitnesses in the incident, before the fast-track court. The duo had stated that while they were taking shelter at the slain Congress MP Ahesan Jafri's house, Jafri had made a phone call to the chief minister Narendra Modi asking for help only to be abused by him.
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