Mail Today
20 April 2009
Activists allege bid to derail riots probe
By D. P. Bhattacharya in Ahmedabad
THE 2002 Gujarat riots are still being probed and it was only recently that errant officers were arrested. But social activists have alleged that efforts are on to derail the investigations. The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) had on March 6 submitted a sealed report on its inquiry into the riots to the apex court. But independent activists, who have been working for the last seven years to bring the guilty to book, have alleged that the Gujarat government had leaked the report to a newspaper. The paper had then distorted the contents to malign the activists and question their credibility, it has been alleged.
The newspaper report had claimed that the SIT had criticised the activists in its reports and that most of the macabre incidents during the pogrom, such as the Kausar Bano incident — in which the pregnant woman was raped and her womb was torn open — were fabricated by the activists. They were also accused of “tutoring the witnesses”.
The newspaper had also claimed that the SIT report had given a clean chit to then state police chief, P.C. Pandey, claiming he had helped hospitalise the victims during the riots.
“It is evident that the state government is leaking out information to a section of press to salvage its image at this point,” said eminent lawyer-activist Dr Mukul Sinha. “While the process of sabotaging the investigations had begun long ago, now they are doing all that they can to influence the trial,” he added.
SIT chief R. K. Raghavan refused to confirm or deny the charges that the report was leaked out by the Gujarat government. “ I have submitted the report to the Supreme Court. If somebody chooses to leak the report, I have no comments on it,” he said.
Gujarat government officials or BJP functionaries were also not available for comment.
The SIT report was submitted to the apex court in a sealed cover. The SIT had ‘ refused to share the contents of the report with the victims, the activists or even the National Human Rights Commission.
So, it was evident that it could have been leaked only by the state government, activists alleged.
An affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by Hemantika Wahi, advocate for the Gujarat government, quoted the SIT report and alleged that some victims in the Gulbarg Society case had signed “ computer- typed, readymade statements” provided by activist Teesta Setalvad and a lawyer, Tirmizi.
“ The state government craves to urge this Honourable Court that this type of indulgence by NGOs in the investigation process may be curtailed and it passes appropriate directions to restrain the said NGO from indulging in such activities,” the affidavit read.
Setalvad voiced concerns and said this was a “ malafide effort to influence the justice system”. She had earlier accused the Gujarat government of trying to frame her in the Best Bakery case as well.
“ The moot question is whether or not 2,500 people were killed in a ghastly perpetrated massacre, or whether hundreds of women were raped?” she said. “ While the state government itself had accepted that 176 women were raped in Gujarat during that time, nothing has been done to ensure justice for them,” she added.
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