Ahmedabad: IPS officer dismissed a day before retirement

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat cadre IPS officer and an accused in the 2002 riots case of Bilkis Bano, R S Bhagora, who was serving as deputy commissioner of traffic (DCP), west, in Ahmedabad city, has been dismissed from service by the Union home ministry, top police officials said on Thursday. The decision comes on the heels of the Supreme Court questioning Gujarat government in April this year regarding disciplinary action taken against Bhagora and four others cops convicted for dereliction of duty while probing the gang rape and murder case.

Bhagora and four others, namely DSP R O Bhabhor, inspectors B R Patel, I A Syed and head constable Narpat Patel were convicted by the Mumbai high court in April 2017 for dereliction in their duty and fudging of evidence in the Bilkis case.
In the April 23 ruling where SC granted Rs 50 lakh compensation and a government job to Bilkis, the apex court had directed the government to file a report on disciplinary action taken against the accused.
Bilkis Yakub Rasool, was 19 years old and pregnant when she was gang-raped in Randhikpur village near Dahod on March 3, 2002. A mob attacked Bilkis and her family. Only Bilkis and her two relatives, Saddam and Husain, survived the savagery while seven persons including her mother, sister and minor daughter were killed.
Bhagora, now 60, was dismissed on May 30, a day before his retirement. He would not get superannuation benefits given to the retired government employees, said an official. Bhagora had joined the police service in 1996 and was promoted as an IPS officer on May 1, 2012.
Joint commissioner of police, traffic, Ahmedabad city, J R Mothalia, confirmed the development. But he refused to divulge further details averring it was a home ministry decision.
Gujarat’s minister of state for home, Pradipsinh Jadeja, said he was not aware of the development. “I have not received any communication from the Union home secretary,” said Jadeja.
On March 4 after the massacre, Bhagora was alleged to have brought Bilkis to a police constable to get her statement recorded wherein he intentionally removed all 12 names of the accused named by the victim.
On March 6, 2002, district collector Jayanti Ravi visited the camp and took her statement again, in which all accused were named. Ravi had then forwarded the file to Dahod SP for action who in turn forwarded the file again to Bhagora. Despite repeated reminders, Bhagora did not take any action till July 2002, and eventually filed the closure report, saying that the event is true but undetected and the accused are untraceable.
Bhagora and other cops were convicted under sections 218 (not performing their duties) and section 201 (tampering of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
When Bano expressed apprehensions that the witnesses could be harmed and the CBI evidence tampered with, the apex court transferred the case to Mumbai in August 2004.
A special court had on January 21, 2008 convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 11 men for raping Bano and murdering seven of her family members in the aftermath of the Godhra riots, while acquitting seven persons including the policemen and doctors.
The order of acquitting the police officers was challenged before the Bombay high court which had on May 4, 2017 convicted the five cops including Bhagora and two doctors for not performing their duties and tampering of evidence.
This order was challenged through appeals before the Supreme Court which had on July 10, 2017 dismissed the pleas of two doctors and policemen saying there was “clear-cut evidence” against them.
Read this report in Bengali