By TCN Staff Reporter,
Ahmedabad: Social activists and legal luminaries have begun questioning the relevance of the Nanavati Commission after a division bench of the Gujarat High Court struck down the POTA applied to the Godhra train carnage accused last week and blasted `conspiracy theory’ of Chief Minister Narendra Modi who had been advancing his political career and also won two assembly elections on its basis.
The advocates who had been involved with fighting POTA cases and had represented before the commission are of the view that it should be disbanded as it has no meaning now with a divison bench comprising Justice Bhagwati Prasad and Justice Bankim Mehta ruling that POTA did not apply to the godhra train carnage accused even though the bench held that it was a “shocking incident having the potential to be treated as serious criminal offence but there is no evidence to suggest that the incident was a conspiracy and the accused are qualified to be treated as terrorists”.
Senior advocate and representative of the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) Dr. Mukul Sinha feels that commission is no longer required to continue after the high court ruling which is binding on the state government and investigating agencies.
“The commission needs to be disbanded with immediate effect and the government expenditure being made on it be saved for some other purposes”, suggests Sinha, adding that the commission has also not met for the last six months after he (Sinha) boycotted the commission over the appointment of Justice (retd) Akshay Mehta appointed on it after former commission member Justice (retd) Shah expired.
It may be recalled that Nanavati Commission, in its Part I report tabled in the state assembly about six months ago had confirmed the `conspiracy theory’ of the special investigation team (SIT) of the Gujarat police. The SIT, in its chargsheet, had stated that the godhra train carnage was a `conspiracy’ hatched by the local Muslims and it was on this basis it had booked 134 accused under POTA. However, the SIT comprising Rakesh Asthana, J K Bhatt and Noel Parmar had not been able to furnish any evidence, except the statements of the accused, to support their findings. A total of 59 Hindus, returning from Ayodhya, were killed after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express train was torched by a mob allegedly belonging to Muslims at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002.
Senior advocate and rights activist Girish Patel said that with the Gujarat high court rejecting the `conspiracy theory’ of the SIT as well as the Nanavati Commission, there was no need of the commission at all. Moreover, the report of the commission was also not legally binding either on courts or the investigating agencies and hence it was a useless exercise.
He said that the commission in the Part I report had also given a clean chit to (Narendra) Modi and his ministers saying that there was no evidence of their involvement in post-godhra riots. “So, we can’t expect anything contradictory in the second part and hence, it would be better if the commission is disbanded”, he suggested. He wanted justice (retd) G T Nanavati and Justice (retd) Akshay Mehta to quit from the commission for failing to dig out the truth.
Another advocate Hiralal gupta, who represented the Congress party before the commission, said that the commission had lost its relevance now. It is really surprising that the high court did not apply POTA to the accused while nanavati commission felt that POTA was attracted toward the accused though they took the decision on the same evidence”, said gupta. In his ruling, the bench remarked that the statements of the accused could not be considered as evidence to frame the accused under POTA.
Gupta said that with the bench lifting POTA, the godhra accused now would be tried under Indian Penal code, IndianRailways Act and Mumbai Police Act and can move the trial court to seek bail after two weeks when the judgement comes into force.
PUCL (Gujarat) president Juzar S. Bandukwala said that the high court ruling was a tight slap on the face of Narendra Modi and those supporting him. “It has now given a rayof hope for the Godhra accused to seek bail and get justice now after six years of their imprisonment”, he remarked.
A total of 134 persons were accused in the Godhra carnage case of February 27, 2002. Of these 18 had been declared absconder, including one who has died, and 116 were arrested. Of them, 103 were chargesheeted and 19 bailed out, including three juvenile and two others who died. Three others died in judicial custody. A total of 81 are languishing in jails, 79 of them in Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad and two others in juvenile observation home.
Amongst those in jail, 61 year old Maulana Hussain Umarji suffers from Kidney malfucntion, high blood pressure and arthritis. Siddiq Abdullah Badam suffers from bone tuberculosis, Anwar Muhammed Menda suffers from mental depression, Qutbuddin Ansari suffers from a lung disease and Anwar Hussain Pital from severe haemorrhoids.