Complaints against BJP MP Dinu Bogha Solanki ignored for 10 years

AHMEDABAD: Chief minister Narendra Modi would not have faced the embarrassment of a Gujarat MP being arrested for murder in the middle of the 2014 Parliamentary election build-up had his government listened to senior cops a decade back.
In 2003, Junagadh superintendant (SP) and deputy inspector general (DIG) had filed a report giving details of how BJP MP Dinu Bogha Solanki was trying to stoke communal tension in Kodinar and control the police department.The reports were submitted to the Junagadh collector and home department but no action was taken on them.
Solanki, who was increasingly feared by locals in the past 10 years, was arrested recently in connection with the murder of RTI activist Amit Jethawa.
The three old reports indicting Solanki have been submitted to the Gujarat high court by a local activist Mahesh Macwana in his plea seeking an SIT probe into Solanki's role and his aides in 21 criminal cases. Two such reports were submitted by then SPs of Junagadh - S S Trivedi and R J Sawani - to the then collector R K Pathak on November 3, 2003. Yet another report was filed by the then DIG TS Bisht.
"Local MLA Dinu Solanki seems to be preventing local police from performing their duty," the report states. "No police inspector or police sub-inspector is willing to perform duty at the Kodinar police station. Such situation might yield adverse consequences in future and there is a possibility that the law and order situation would deteriorate."
The report further states that dirty allegations were made against police officer who refused to toe Solanki's line. It goes to the extent of saying that the MP was trying to run Kodinar police station like his private firm and that this had been put on record by different police officers.
Acting on the report filed by the DSP, Bisht also submitted a report to the director general of police on November 11, 2003. He stated that Solanki seemed to be active in illegal activities and that he had a tendency of inciting communal tension by instigating the public through his party workers.
When TOI tried to inquire about the report Bisht, now additional director general of police, refused to comment. "It is an old report," he said. "I would like to read the report again before commenting." Trivedi said "I can't recollect much about the contents of the report."