Nanavati gives Gujarat govt clean chit in 2002 riots.

Source – hindustantimes.com

The final report of the Commission of Inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice GT Nanavati, probing the Godhra train burning incident of February 2002 that left 59 ‘kar sevaks’ dead, the subsequent communal riots that broke out in Gujarat over the following three months, and the role of the then chief minister Narendra Modi, along with other ministers and the police, was tabled in the state assembly on Wednesday, and found no pre-meditation or conspiracy in the riots that left over 1,200 people dead.

Giving a clean chit to the current prime minister, the 2500-page, nine-volume report stated: “There is no evidence to show that these attacks were either inspired or instigated by any minister of the state.”

The report, which was submitted in November 2014, but not tabled in the assembly till now, further said that the police was ineffective in controlling riots. The first part of the report, which found that the train-burning incident was premeditated, was submitted in September 2008.

“Over 44,000 affidavits, including 18,000 for relief work and 400 by the government officers, were filed before the commission. The commission has come to the conclusion that riots were not a conspiracy and it gives clean chit to (the) then CM Modi, his government and officers,” said Pradeepsinh Jadeja, minister of state for home, who tabled the report.

“On an overall consideration of the entire material, the commission finds that the communal riots which followed the Godhra incident were really by way of an aftermath of that incident,” the report stated. “It was because of the Godhra incident that large sections of Hindu community became very angry and ultimately indulged in violent attacks on Muslims and their properties,” it said.

The report said the post-Godhra riots that spread out in the state were “not a pre-planned conspiracy or orchestrated violence”. There is no substance in allegations that state authorities turned a blind eye to post-Godhra riots, it said.

The commission also said that it did not find any evidence against “any religious or political party or organisations as such” in connection with the riots.“The only thing that can be said with some certainty, on the basis of evidence which has come before the commission, is that local members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal took part in the incidents which happened in their localities,” it said.

“While considering the evidence relating to the incidents which happened during the communal riots, we have noticed that the absence of police or their inadequate number emboldened the mobs to indulge in violence,” it said. On some communal riot incidents in Ahmedabad city, the report said: “The police had not shown their competence and eagerness which was necessary.”

The commission was formed in March 2002, and reconstituted in May 2002, under the chairmanship of Justice Nanavati, who also probed the 1984 Sikh riots that broke out after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

The mandate of the commission, initially formed to inquire into the Godhra train-burning incident, was further expanded to probe the communal riots that broke out in its immediate aftermath, as well as the role of the then CM, any minister in his council and police officers in matters pertaining to protection, relief and rehabilitation of victims, as well as in dealing with any political or non-political organisation which may have been found to be involved.

The two-member commission, also comprising Justice Akshay Mehta, a retired judge of Gujarat high court, questioned Modi — the report did not specify when this happened — in connection with the killing of former Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri in the riots.

Jafri, in whose house in Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad several Muslims had taken refuge, was one among 68 killed in that area by rioters on February 28. His wife, Zakia, alleged that Jafri had called Modi among other top officials for help. However, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe incidents of rioting gave the then CM a clean chit in this incident — this was further upheld by the Gujarat HC, following which Zakia Jafri moved the Supreme Court, challenging the SIT’s finding.

“I did not receive any telephone call from Shri Ehsan Jafri, ex-member of parliament either on February 28 at 1pm or any other point of time,” Modi told the commission.

According to the commission report, the PM’s statement said, “In my capacity of the then Chief Minister and the Home Minister of the State of Gujarat, I was personally reviewing the situation continuously by holding appraisal/review meetings of the senior government and police officials responsible for the maintenance of law and order more than once daily to ensure normalcy is restored immediately. I was being kept informed about the incident started happening on February 27, 2002 by the senior officers heading, their respective departments were also keeping me posted with the steps taken by them to control the sudden violent situation erupted in the aftermath of Godhra train burning incident with the effective aid and assistance of all forces including para-military forces and military which the state agencies had deployed immediately.”

The commission also remarked negatively on the role of three police officers: RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt.

While Sharma had submitted call record data during the riots, RB Sreekumar, the former state director general of police, had filed affidavits before the commission alleging that illegal orders were given to the police during the riots. He also filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Gujarat high court seeking a direction to the state government to make the report public. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government in September this year told the court that it will table the report in the next assembly session.

Bhatt had alleged that soon after the Godhra train-burning incident, Modi had asked senior officers in a high-level meeting to let the people vent their anger. However, “The commission has found that Bhatt was not present at the meeting,” Jadeja said.

Bhatt, who faced dismissal from service, has been convicted in a 1996 case of planting drugs and is in prison.

“I, Sanjiv Bhatt and Rahul Sharma raised the voice against the government. The Gujarat government could find some skeletons against Bhatt so he was jailed. But it could not find anything against me and Sharma. It is not shocking that our names are specially mentioned in the report. I am yet to read and study the report,” Sreekumar said.

The cases of rioting at Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam, in which 97 and 11 people were killed, were not investigated by the commission as they were subjudice. In 2012, Mayaben Kodnani, a minister in the then cabinet, was found guilty of inciting rioters and sentenced to 28 years in prison by a lower court. She was cleared of all charges by the Gujarat high court in 2018.

The commission also gave a clean chit to former ministers Haren Pandya and Ashokbhai Bhatt among others.

The Congress termed the investigation by the commission a farce. “The clean chit has not been given, but obtained. The BJP government itself had appointed the commission to investigate allegation against themselves. Instead of self congratulation, the government should implore on what had gone wrong,” said the Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi.