Dec 03, 2006)
Final hearing on Godhra carnage, Gujarat communal riots from Monday
Special Correspondent
AHMEDABAD: The final phase of hearing in the Godhra train carnage and the post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 will begin before the G.T. Nanavati and K.G. Shah judicial inquiry commission on a day-to-day basis from Monday.
On the first day, the discussions, likely to be opened by the commission members, would be centred around the fire in coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express on the outskirts of Godhra station on February 27, 2002, which sparked the communal carnage.
Mr. Justice Nanavati and Mr. Justice Shah visited the site of the carnage about a fortnight and discussed various aspects with senior railway and police officials. Commission sources said the issues to be discussed included the incidents of chain pulling, the reported scuffle between the police escorts and the kar sevaks at Godhra and at the earlier stations, the alleged negligence of the State Reserve Police pickets in dispersing the crowd at the site of the carnage, the veracity of a Muslim girl alleged to have been dragged inside the train by the kar sevaks, the alleged manhandling of a `burqa-clad woman' at the Godhra platform and other issues preceding the fire in the train.
Dr. Mukul Sinha, advocate for the Jansangharsha Manch, which is fighting the cases on behalf of the riot victims, told the Commission that it should also consider the report of the Central POTA Review Committee which found the application of the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act against the accused in the train carnage by the Gujarat police unjustified. He pointed out that the committee was a statutory body and its report had so far not been challenged or overruled by any court. The committee had stated that prima facie, it did not find any proof of conspiracy or an act of terrorism in the train carnage and had recommended that the accused in the case could be tried under various other existing laws.
The Commission has not indicated its mind on Dr. Sinha's request. Its members told the advocates that it was keen on completing the hearings at the earliest and finalising its report as its extended term was ending on December 31.
The Commission also informed the lawyers that it had, by and large, completed studying some 47,000 affidavits filed in connection with the carnage and the incidents of communal violence and would take up the issues during the discussions from Monday.
Two notices were issued by the Commission listing the incidents to be taken up for discussion on December 16 and on January 6. On the first day, it includes the districts where there was very little violence. The areas from where the most heinous incidents were reported, including Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Banaskantha and Vadodara, would be taken up in the third phase for which no dates have yet been finalised.