Indian Express: Mumbai: Sunday, July 20, 2014.
There is a
difference of five minutes in the timings recorded for the firing behind Cama
hospital during the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, which claimed the
lives of three senior police officers. The timing of the firing given by the
police to the wife of slain IPS officer Ashok Kamte after her Right to
Information (RTI) query is 23.53 hours, while the time mentioned in the
chargesheet filed by the Mumbai police in the 26/11 terror attack case is 23:48
hours.
Maharashtra
State Chief Information Commissioner (SCIC) Ratnakar Gaikwad has highlighted the
discrepancies in timings and failure of the Mumbai Police to preserve the hard
disk of the voice logger, which recorded the conversation between police
officers on the night of the 26/11 attack.
In an order
passed on July 9, Gaikwad raised doubts on whether Mumbai police Commissioner
Rakesh Maria was trying to hide information about the 26/11 attacks by
withholding and providing misleading information about the call logs of
wireless conversations between the police control room and Kamte’s van on the day
of his death. He had also asked the state government to institute a commission
to inquire why misleading information was provided.
Documents
accessed by The Indian Express show that in reply to an RTI query filed by
Kamte’s wife Vinita, the Mumbai police provided her with details of call logs
in November 2009. These logs listed the first report of firing at St Xavier’s
College, where Kamte and the three officers were killed, at 23:53 hours. Yet another RTI reply to
Kamte in February 2010 makes no reference to any incident at 23:53 hours.
However, the Mumbai police’s chargesheet filed in the 26/11 case lists the
timing at 23:48 hours, five minutes earlier than what Kamte had been told.
There is a
difference even in the time mentioned in two RTI replies to the query on when
the first Quick Response Team was sent to provide help to the three martyred
officers. In the first RTI reply given to Vinita, the time is stated to be
23:53 hours. The second RTI reply states the time at 23:52 hours, while the police
chargesheet states the time as 23:48 hours.
The state
blamed the discrepancy in the timings given to Kamte through RTI on constables
who were drafting the transcripts.
However, the
state has failed to explain to Vinita why there was such a glaring time
difference in the first RTI reply and the Mumbai Police’s chargesheet.
“They are yet
to explain how there was a difference in the time given to me and the time
listed in the chargesheet,” Vinita said.
Vinita’s lawyer Dhairyasheel Patil,
representing her before the State Information Commission, pointed out that
there were serious discrepancies in the time given by the police, which was
suspicious.
“There is a
huge disparity of up to six minutes in the timings of the incidents that took
place on 26/11. The original hard disk of the voice logger has not been
retained. There seems to be large-scale manipulations in the call records for some unknown reason,”
Patil has been referred to have said according to the proceedings listed by the
SCIC.
Gaikwad took
cognisance of all the questions raised by Vinita and her counsel. He said there
were serious doubts about manipulation being done.
“It would be
improper to say that the questions raised by Vinita about the information
provided to her are incorrect. It is questionable why in such a serious
incident the voice logger with the hard disk was not preserved. Also, how can
it be said that there was no manipulation when a CD was created from the
original video logger,” Gaikwad said in his order.
Gaikwad also
said the government had stated that information on the hard drive was only
saved for a specific period of time and after that it was automatically
destroyed. Vinita has raised an issue on how the hard disk documenting an
incident of such grave magnanimity could be overwritten.
“It was said
that the memory was stored for a limited period and that an expert opinion of a
manufacturer would be presented before the Commission. However, it has been
almost two weeks now and no such opinion has been presented before us,” Gaikwad
said.
Maria refused
to comment, saying the police would file a reply with the state CIC.
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