Operations jurisdiction* State of Gujarat, IN Governing body Government of Gujarat | Legal jurisdiction State of Gujarat | |
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Legal personality Governmental: Government agency General nature Law enforcement
Local civilian police Agency executive P.P. Pandey IPS, Director General of Police, Gujarat State | ||
The Gujarat Police is the law enforcement agency for the state of Gujarat in India. The Gujarat Police has its headquarters in Gandhinagar, the state capital.
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The Gujarat Police came into existence after Gujarat's separation from the Greater Mumbai state on 1 May 1960.
The Gujarat Police is headed by Director General of Police (DGP). There are four Commissioners' offices are now: Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat. There are seven ranges in the Gujarat Police: Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Rajkot, Junagadh, Surat and Boarder Range. For police administration the state is further divided into 26 police districts and Western Railway Police.
Gujarat Police has some branches for special tasks: Crime, anti-terrorist squad (ATS) and the Intelligence wing. The Gujarat Police was the first state police to crack the serial bomb blast mystery during 2007-08 in many Indian cities including 2008 Ahmedabad bombings
Politicization of the Gujarat Police
In the years following the 2002 Godhra Riots, the Gujarat police is widely perceived as having become "extraordinarily politicized" Up to 2013, there were an unprecedented total of 32 police officers, including six IPS officers who were in jail for the cold-blooded killing of a dozen people in staged "encounters".
On April 24, 2007, DIG Rajnish Rai of Gujarat Police, who was investigating the Sohrabuddin Sheikh murder case, arrested three senior police officers: D G Vanzara, S Pandian Rajkumar and Dinesh MN (Rajasthan cadre). Vanzara was charged as the key executor of the extrajudicial killings. As a DIG, he had been promoted as head of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, normally an IG post.
The deputy home minister under Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, has been indicted as the "kingpin and prime accused" in the Tulsiram Prajapati murder case. Modi himself held the portfolio for Home. The BJP minister from Rajasthan, Gulab Chand Kataria has also been chargesheeted in the Prajapati murder.
In September 2013, D. G. Vanzara accused Amit Shah and Narendra Modi of having given the orders to eliminate four people, including Tulsiram Prajapati (for which Shah has been charged with being "kingpin and prime accused"). In Vanzara's words:
"CBI had arrested me and my officers holding us responsible for carrying out alleged fake encounters. If that is true, [the CBI] have to arrest the policy formulators also as we, being field officers, have simply implemented the conscious policy of this government. ... I am of the firm opinion that the place of this government, instead of being in Gandhinagar should either be in Taloja Central Prison at Navi Mumbai or in Sabarmati Central Prison at Ahmedabad."In the Ishrat Jahan case too, Vanzara has allegedly named direct approval from the highest levels
Rebuke from courts
The Supreme Court has pulled up the standards of policing in Gujarat in a number of cases. In the Bilkis Bano mass rape and murder case, the Supreme Court observed gross "negligence on the part of the local police" and handed the case to CBI. The CBI discovered that the police had buried several bodies with salt so they might disintegrate faster. Several police personnel were convicted along with the eleven rapists.
In the Naroda Patiya massacre, the Supreme court scolded the Gujarat police for not arresting several accused. Subsequently Modi minister Maya Kodnani was sentenced to 28 years for complicity in the massacre
Meanwhile, police officers such as Sanjiv Bhatt, Rajnish Rai and R. B. Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma (Gujarat police) were penalized for doing their jobs.
According to ex Director General of Police, RB Sreekumar, the Gujarat police is in the grip of "Modi-phobia". Another ex-DGP, R N Bhattacharya, has suggested that Gujarat police may have been compliant with Muslim killings during the riots.