IN THE HIGH COURT OF
JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
DISTRICT: MUMBAI
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO.: 20 OF
2008 Affidavit 62 / 2009 Filed on 12.1.2009
Indur Kartar Chhugani ….Petitioner
V E R S U S
Union of
India, represented
by
the Home Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India, And Others ... Respondents
AFFIDAVIT
I Indur Kartar Chhugani age 61 years, residing at
501/502 Pinky Panorama Co-operative Society, 6th
Road, Khar (West) Mumbai 400 052, do hereby state on
oath and solemn affirmation as under:-
1. After the Mumbai Bomb Blasts in 1993, the
Government of India had (through its order No
S/7973/SS (ISP)/93 dated 9th July 1993 established a
committee to take stock of all available information
about the activities of crime syndicates / Mafia
organizations, which had developed links with and
were being protected by government functionaries and
political personalities.
2. Based on the recommendations of the committee,
government was to determine the need, if any, to
establish a special organization / agency to
regularly collect information and pursue cases
against such elements.
3. The committee was headed by the then Home
Secretary Shri N. N Vohra as chairman and Special
Secretary (Internal Security and Police), MHA was
subsequently added as a member of this committee.
4. This So called “VOHRA COMMITTEE REPORT”
was submitted to the Government on 5.10.1993,
suggesting various recommendations.
5. In Para 2.1 it is stated "From the various
reports, it as apparent that the activities of Memon
Brothers and Dawood Ibrahim had progressed over the
years, leading to the establishment of a powerful
network. This could not have happened without these
elements having been protected by functionaries of
the concerned Government departments, especially
Customs, Income Tax, Police and others.It was
therefore necessary to identify the linkages.
6. InPara 3.1 it is stated “A Report on the
nexus between the Bombay City Police and the Bombay
under-world was prepared by CBI in 1986. It would be
useful to institute a fresh study by CBI, on the
basis of which appropriate administrative/legal
measures could be initiated.
7. In Para 6.2 (ii) it is stated “These
syndicates have acquired substantial financial muscle
and social respectability and have successfully
corrupted the Government machinery at all levels and
wield enough influence to make the task of
Investigating and Prosecuting agencies extremely
difficult; even the members of the judicial system
have not escaped the embrace of the Mafia.
8. The committee made various suggestions for action
against those in Government helping the Mafia and
creating a nodal agency for sharing information
between different departments of the Government. If
the suggestions had been followed, the terrorist
attack that took place on 26/11 could have been
stopped. Attached is Copy of VOHRA COMMITTEE REPORT
as EXHIBIT “A”
9. Having ignored all the recommendations of the
VOHRA COMMITTEE REPORT, Now chief minister Ashok
Chavan has set up a two-member committee on December
30 to probe into the alleged lapses in tackling the
November 26 terror attacks. The committee, which has
been asked to submit its report within two months,
will examine whether the Mumbai police took prompt
action. Attached as EXHIBIT “B” is the
Times of India report to that effect.
10. Various newspaper Reports have appeared, which
only confirm, the findings of the inquiry report. The
reporters who are credited, with the story, must have
all the information. Attached are reports as EXHIBIT
“C” Colly.
11. Media Reports attached as EXHIBIT “C”
report a Senior official having said “What is
the point in talking about extraditing Dawood from
Pakistan when we do not have the guts to utilise his
properties in Mumbai?’’ . Also an
India-Today report from Issue dated 9.1.2009 reports
of rift and infighting amongst Sr Police Officials
and states “The constant tussle between the ATS
and the Crime Branch may be legion, but it is one
that suits the politicians as plum postings are
decided not on the basis of merit but political
connections, caste and religion”.
12. In April 1989, Mr Rahul Singh then Editor of
“The Sunday Observer”, had in a front page
report, stated that Dr P S Pasricha (then a DCP) was
hosting Khalistani terrorists, in his home at Mumbai.
The Mumbai Police after getting insufficient proof,
concerning the report, had arrested Mr Rahul Singh.
My humble prayers are that in view of such a
comprehensive report by a committee formed by the
Central Government , and its detailed findings , this
Honble Court be pleased to make this petition final.
I Indur Kartar Chhugani age 61 years, residing at
501/502 Pinky Panorama Co-operative Society, 6th
Road, Khar (West) Mumbai 400 052, hereby state on
oath that whatever is tated above, is true, to the
best of my knowledge and belief.
Indur Kartar Chhugani
Mumbai
Dated 12.1.2009
A F F I R M A T I O N
I Indur K. Chhugani, son of Late Kartar Chhugani
Aged: 61 years; Occupation: Social Work, citizen of
India, Resident of 501-502, Pinky Panorama CHS Ltd.,
6th Road, Khar (W), Mumbai - 400 052, the Petitioner
above-named, do hereby solemnly affirm and state that
I have read the contents of the foregoing paragraphs
and whatever stated therein is true and correct to
the best of my knowledge and belief.
Reproduced
from The Times of India January 4, 2009 page 3
.............EXH "B"
TERMS OF REFERENCE
CARNAGE IN
MUMBAI
Committee to probe if cops acted swiftly on
terror intel
Prafulla Marpakwar | TNN
Mumbai: Notwithstanding the denial by both state
director-general of police A N Roy and Mumbai police
chief Hasan Gafoor, the two-member committee headed
by former chief secretary Ram Pradhan will probe into
the alleged failure of law-enforcing agencies to act
on intelligence inputs provided by central
intelligence organisations.
After a prolonged delay, chief minister Ashok Chavan
set up a two-member committee on December 30 to probe
into the alleged lapses in tackling the November 26
terror attacks. Retired IPS officer V Balachandran is
the other member of the panel.
The committee, which has been asked to submit its
report within two months, will examine whether the
Mumbai police took prompt action
during the 26/11 terror strikes. “We have set up
the committee and expect it to submit the report in a
time-bound manner,’’ Chavan told TOI.
Even as there were specific reports that the
Intelligence Bureau had specifically warned the
Mumbai police about possible terror attacks on
fivestar hotels in south Mumbai, the cops denied it,
saying there was no communication from the Centre.
A senior government official said as it was a
committee, Pradhan would not have the power to summon
any official or individual to seek information on the
attacks.
“We feel the probe should have been initiated
under the Commissions of Inquiry Act and headed by a
retired judge of the high court. In that event, the
presiding officer would have all judicial powers to
summon an individual,’’ the official said.
Reproduced
from The Times of India December 27, 2008 front page
.............EXH "C"...1
Dawood
celebrates quiet b’day in Islamabad
S Balakrishnan | TNN
Mumbai: India’s most wanted fugitive had an
uncharacteristically subdued 53rd birthday on Friday.
Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI)
quietly relocated Dawood Ibrahim to a plush safehouse
in Islamabad. Sources in the security agencies said
Dawood was planning a big bash on his birthday in
Karachi on Friday, but wary of the attention it would
attract from the world media and foreign intelligence
agencies, the ISI chose to whisk him away from the
spotlight. Apparently, the party in the Pak capital
was a relatively lowkey affair attended by senior ISI
officials, Dawood’s close friends and an
international arms dealer.
Pakistan has been routinely denying that
Dawood—who is also a suspect in the Mumbai 26/11
attack—is holed up in its territory.
Most of his business associates in Mumbai avoided
going to Pakistan to greet the don lest they be
interrogated on their return. In the past they would
go to Dubai, from where the D Company made
arrangements for them to be flown to Karachi with the
blessings of the ISI.
Meanwhile, security agencies are seething with anger
because their suggestion to put 24 properties
belonging to Dawood in Mumbai to government use has
not found favour with the Centre as yet. “We
have recommended that the properties be used to build
police stations or even house the offices of the
newly constituted National Investigation Agencies.
But no one in Delhi seems to care. What is the point
in talking about extraditing Dawood from Pakistan
when we do not have the guts to utilise his
properties in Mumbai?’’ a senior official
observed.
The city police is also still to receive the green
signal from the state government to question former
revenue minister Narayan Rane about his allegation
that he knows the names of the politicians who
financed and provided logistical support to the
November 26 massacre in Mumbai.
Reproduced
from The Times of India December 31, 2008 front
page.............EXH "C"...2
Rs 36,000
cr ED notice to Hassan Ali
Pranati Mehra | TNN
Mumbai: The Enforcement Dire c t o r at e (ED) issued
a show-cause notice to flamboyant Pune businessman
Hassan Ali Khan on Tuesday under the Foreign Exchange
Management Act (FEMA) for allegedly acquiring a
whopping Rs 36,000 crore illegally.
Shockingly, the ED’s investigation has indicated
that the portfolio manager of international arms
dealer Adnan Khashoggi dealt with Khan extensively in
regard to one of his Swiss accounts.
Under FEMA, the maximum penalty imposed can be three
times the amount involved. If imposed in this case,
it would amount to a whopping Rs 1.08 lakh crore.
Notarized statement helps ED trace Hassan Ali’s
deal with Khashoggi
Mumbai: A show-cause notice (SCN), signed by the
Enforcement Directorate’s special director K
Nageshwar Rao, was issued at businessman Hassan Ali
Khan’s Koregaon Park house at Pune and his
Pedder Road residence in Mumbai o Tuesday even as ED
officers are questioning him at Arthur Road Jail in
the money laundering case also registered against
him. Khan has been arrested for alleged passport
offences by the Mumbai police.
Khan was raided by the Income Tax department, Mumbai,
in 2007 and found to be operating a bank account in
UBS, Zurich, with a sum of US $8,000.45 million. That
raid spawned a host of investigations against him.
The documents of the account were recovered from his
Pune house. Estimates of the total Indian money
stashed in Swiss banks is about US $1,410 bn.
The ED has traced Khan’s alleged transaction
with arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi through a notarized
statement of Khan signed on June 29, 2003 in London.
The document contains a letter written by Khan to
Prabhu Guptara, director, Organizational Development,
Woflsberg Executive Development Centre, Switzerland
(a subsidiary of UBS), explaining why one of his
Swiss accounts had been tagged with the remark:
‘Funds from weapons sales’, and had been
made inoperable.
The letter explained the circumstances in which Khan
first opened an account with UBS Singapore in 1982
with $1.5 million, through Retro Hartmann of UBS
Singapore and then how Dr Peter Weilly, the portfolio
manager of Khashoggi, allegedly took over as his
manager. Khan had received $300m in this account
allegedly from Khashoggi’s Chase Manhattan bank
account in New York. After the document was notarized
by a UK notary on June 29, 2003, Khan seems to have
allegedly reported his Indian passport as lost in
London and acquired a new passport there. A copy of
the first page of the old passport is enclosed with
the notarised document.
The probe has also thrown up ‘evidence’
against Khan’s associate Kashinath Tapuria, who
said two politicians,including a senior Congressman,
had referred Khan to him during his days of financial
difficulties. The ED’s next showcause is likely
to include Tapuria and Philip Anandraj, Khan’s
old friend and creditor, who was in his Pune house on
the day of the I-T raid. Some others are also likely
to be named.
From
India-Today issue of January 9, 2009..............EXH
"C"...3
Force
divider
Malini Bhupta and Swati Mathur
December 26, 2008
India Today expert view on Force divider
It was the foot soldiers who fell prey to the
terrorists’ bullets in the Mumbai attacksA
German army commander once famously said of the
British Army that it was a bunch of “lions led
by donkeys”. The reference was to the soldiers
who were led to their deaths by inept generals during
the First World War. In Mumbai, a similar tragedy was
unveiled on November 26, as the top brass of Mumbai
Police took the backseat in the comfort of their
luxury cars while their brave footsoldiers fell to
terrorists’ bullets.
The mandatory back-patting and self-congratulations
over, the Mumbai Police top brass is now faced with
uncomfortable questions about the quality of their
leadership.
In response to opposition leader Ramdas Kadam’s
charges against Commissioner of Police Hasan Gafoor
and Director-General (DG) of Police A.N. Roy, all
that Chief Minister Ashok Chavan would commit last
week was a high-level probe into the alleged lapses,
an indication of the confusion at the top political
levels.
The announcement was made after the Shiv Sena and the
BJP demanded removal of Roy and Gafoor, along with
Home Secretary Chitkala Zutshi. The three have been
squarely blamed for the alleged lapses. Despite the
pointed fingers, the Mumbai Police is a divided
house. One would expect that this crisis would have
come as a wake-up call for the police force and their
political masters, but the intense infighting and
one-upmanship indicates that any kind of change is a
long way off.
The fact that the chief minister and his deputy are
from different parties adds to the problemsBe it
Gafoor’s refusal to cooperate with the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team, which was left
hanging for three days, or keeping the Anti-Terror
Squad (ATS) out of investigations, or even leaking
their “heroic footage” during operations,
the Mumbai Police has left no stone unturned in
bungling. All attempts to reach the commissioner and
the DG failed as they refused to take calls or
respond to faxes.
Senior officers attribute the leadership crisis to
the politicisation of the force and the rift between
the DG and the commissioner, which intensified during
Roy’s tenure as commissioner of Mumbai. This
battle is now beginning to impact the investigations
with the ATS probing only the CST attacks.
Since its inception in July 2004, all terror attacks
in the state, except 26/11, have been investigated by
this special squad. However, since the squad comes
under the DG, it’s getting a raw deal. Says
former DGP of Maharashtra Arvind Inamdar,
“Ideally, the investigations should have been
given to the ATS. However, since 2000, the Mumbai
commissioner of Police started reporting to the home
minister and home secretary instead of the DG. This
goes against the concept of one force and one
leader.”
Strangely, sources in the Home Ministry justify the
decision by saying that the squad is “less
capable” than the Crime Branch.
The constant tussle between the ATS and the Crime
Branch may be legion, but it is one that suits the
politicians as plum postings are decided not on the
basis of merit but political connections, caste and
religion. Many senior officers allege that the Mumbai
Police chief’s “leadership failure”
and coterie politics has demotivated the already
ineffective force. Says Nitin Gadkari, BJP general
secretary, Maharashtra: “The ruling parties want
to appoint their officers as district SPs to get
their work done. The state DGP A.N. Roy works under
the influence of Sharad Pawar, so he never worked
with the chief minister.”
It didn’t help matters that while Mumbai was
battling terrorists, the appointment of the DG was
being contested in the Bombay High Court. Says
Gopinath Munde of the BJP, “There are certain
regulations for IPS officers’ postings. The CAT
order set aside Roy’s appointment, but the state
Government continues to retain him as DG.” The
division between the office of Mumbai police chief
and the DG became apparent when the action shifted to
Maharashtra Police headquarters, as Roy coordinated
with the chief secretary and the Home Ministry for
deployment of the National Security Guard, which
effectively led to a division in the force.
It is the failure of leadership that is more
disconcerting. As the crisis peaked after the first
couple of hours, Gafoor camped outside the
Trident-Oberoi in his Honda City, along with
Additional Commissioner (Armed Police) Raja E. Pawar
and Additional Commissioner (Protection and Security)
Vinay M. Kargaonkar. Several senior officers were not
even consulted. Captain Anurag Grover, formerly with
the 21 PARA (Special Forces) and an eyewitness to the
operations at the Trident, says: “There was lack
of coordination between agencies that were placed
inside and outside the hotel. The heads of the
multiple agencies didn’t even have their
telephone numbers or radio frequencies.”
The mayhem started from the police control room,
which should have ideally been manned by the Joint
Commissioner of Police (Administration) Bhagwant D.
More, who was camping at Nariman House. More refused
to comment when contacted. In the absence of any
clear leadership, Joint Commissioner of Police
(Crime) Rakesh Maria took charge of the control room.
The biggest criticism that is being levelled against
the police commissioner is that he sat with his
coterie outside the Trident, waiting for the armed
forces to arrive, refusing to engage with senior IPS
officers.
The willful behaviour of the commissioner peaked, say
senior officers, when the FBI team arrived. At a
meeting held at the DG’s office, where senior
Mumbai police officers, IB officials and members of
the Home Ministry were present, it was decided that
key evidence comprising the GPS data and copies of
SAT phone intercepts would be shared with the FBI
team. However, Gafoor refused to do so when the team
landed at his office. The evidence was shared three
days later, after the Home Ministry and senior IB
officials intervened.
With the Centre turning its attention towards
Maharashtra, Pandora’s box of troubles may have
just opened for the state police. Should this state
of affairs continue and, god forbid, should Mumbai,
yet again, become the target of a terror attack, the
damage could be much worse.
—with inputs from Aditi Pai