Deputy police superintendent Rahul Sharma told an inquiry panel Saturday that at the height of the rioting he was phoned by then-state home minister Gordhan Jhadafiya, who had told him "the ratio of death figures in police firing is not good".

Sharma said he believed the former minister was referring to the fact that five Hindus and one Muslim had been killed in a police firing incident.

He said he had replied to Jhadafiya, "A bullet does not see who it is hitting. If 90 percent of the mob is Hindu, |hen obviously 90 percent of the casualties will be Hindus."

Jhadafiya was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government headed by hardline Hindu leader Narendra Modi, who has been accused by human rights groups of abetting anti-Muslim violence in the western state.

The inquiry into the riots, in which mostly Muslims were killed, has been hearing testimony for the past few months from policemen and bureaucrats who were tasked with containing the bloodletting.

The rioting was sparked by the torching of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims and activists on February 27, 2002 in Gujarat's Godhra town allegedly by a Muslim mob. Some 59 people died.

Sharma said he had been removed as deputy superintendent of police in the flashpoint town of Bhavnagar after he refused to release 21 people who had been arrested in connection with the riots -- all of |hem Hindus.