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Intelligence sources did not adequately warn the city police about
the impending demolition of Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992,
director-general of police R. D. Tyagi told the Srikrishna
commission.
Mr Tyagi was joint police commissioner (crime and administration)
during the Mumbai riots, which broke out after the demolition.
"Whatever information was made available to the police up to
December 4, 1992, when a meeting with the city police commissioner
was held, did not lead us to conclude that the demolition of Babri
Masjid was likely to take place on December 6, 1992, he said.
The police commissioner had held the meeting to ask police
personnel to monitor developments in Ayodhya and take precautions
to maintain order in the city. However, the special branch of the
Mumbai police, which was monitoring developments at Ayodhya, did
not caution the police at the meeting, Mr Tyagi said.
"It was not brought to the attention of the police commissioner and
officers that on December 1, 1992, 50,000 kar sevaks had gathered
at Ayodhya," he said during a cross examination by Milli Council
lawyer Yusuf Muchala. "We were not told that some mazas and tombs
had been damaged and members of the minority community had started
migrating from Ayodhya," Mr Tyagi added.
He said that the police relied heavily on assurances from the
Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government that Babri Masjid would be
protected. "During the meeting, it was not brought to the notice
of the police commissioner that by December 2, 90,000 kar sevaks,
including 1,000 sadhus, had started out for Ayodhya," he said. The
police were not told that the kar sevaks had made a public
statement that they would carry out kar seva irrespective of
government intervention, Mr Tyagi said.
No information was provided that by December 3, 1992, kar sevaks
had already started destroying tombs and mosques in the vicinity of
Babri Masjid, Mr Tyagi said. Nor were they told that on that day,
about 1.5 lakh kar sevaks had already gathered at the site and a
large number of them were armed, he said.
The special branch had told the city police that few kar sevaks had
gone to Ayodhya from Mumbai. "On December 4, 1992, the special
branch informed the police commissioner that there was not an
appreciable response for the call for volunteers amongst activists
of the Shiv Sena, BJP, VHP or Bajrang Dal from Mumbai," he said.
He said the police were aware that the VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv
Sena had publicly given a call inviting volunteers for kar seva at
Ayodhya. However, he said, "We did not consider the recruitment of
kar sevaks to be an unlawful activity."
asked whether the police partial while handling the January 1993
riots, Mr Tyagi said, "My own perception is that at least when it
came to opening fire, the police were impartial." However, he told
commission counsel A. J. Rana that a few members of the minority
community had complained that their shops had been damaged even in
the presence of police personnel.
Mr Tyagi said he was unaware of the confessional statements of
alleged ISI-trained terrorists Lalsingh and Nachan. "Under normal
circumstances, the arrest should have been carried out by the crime
branch and I would have had such details. However, for reasons I
am not aware of, the police commissioner entrusted this job to
another team of officers," he said during a cross examination by
Sena counsel Balkrishna Joshi.
Mr Tyagi told the commission that he did not order the police
firing on alleged terrorists in Suleiman Usman bakery on January 9,
1993. Nine people died in the firing. Mr Tyagi said he heard
about the casualties late that night and his only concern was to
get the injured to hospital. He admitted that he was not satisfied
with the operation because the alleged terrorists were not caught.
The Srikrishna commission will summon several senior police
officials to record evidence in the coming weeks. Police
commissioner during the riot period S. K. Bapat will appear before
the commission to record evidence from March 17. Additional
director-general of police (state CID) M. N. Singh will be called
to record evidence on March 10. The evidences of the then
additional police commissioner (traffic) Hasan Gafoor will be
recorded on March 4 and 5.
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