By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Ahmedabad: In a significant development, the Nanavati-Mehta commission probing the Gujarat riots of 2002 has fixed May 20 as the date of hearing on a petition seeking cross examination of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his seven cabinet colleagues for their alleged involvement in statewide communal riots.
The panel announced its decision on May 12 on an application by Jan Sangharsh Manch seeking cross examination of Modi and his seven cabinet colleagues.
The commission, formerly the Nanavati-Shah Commission, had earlier come under severe criticisms from rights groups and activists when it came out with its Part I report on the Godhra train carnage in September 2008. It invited criticism because its findings were identical with the Gujarat police probe that claimed the Sabarmati train torching incident at Godhra railway station as a “conspiracy.”
The commission had to deal with only Godhra train burning incident in Part I report but it gave clean chit to ruling BJP politicians, including Modi in post-Godhra riots, though it should have been dealt with in Part II report as per the terms of reference of the commission’s inquiry. The Part II report is still awaited. The commission’s report invited wrath of the activists calling it “biased” inquiry and “worthless” document.
But the biggest shock to the commission came when the Gujarat High Court on February 12, 2009, ruled that there was no conspiracy in the Sabarmati train carnage case. Following the order, draconian POTA was lifted from the 79 accused of the case currently imprisoned in the Sabarmati Central Jail in Ahmedabad.
Earlier, a report by Justice (retd) U C Banerjee committee set up by the Union Railway Ministry separately, had also rejected the conspiracy theory.
However, it came as a surprise when the commission on May 12 announced to conduct a fresh hearing on an application that has sought to summon Modi and his seven cabinet colleagues of 2002 for their cross examination.
The application was moved by the Jan Sangharsh Manch representative Mukul Sinha after the apex court on April 27 directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan to probe the roles of Modi and 62 others, including senior IAS and IPS officials, in statewide communal riots of 2002.
The apex court had given instructions on a petition by slain ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri’s widow Zakia Jafri, alleging “an overarching conspiracy’’ involving the then politicians of the ruling party in the riots and sought registration of offences against them.
Earlier in August 2007, JSM had prayed the then Nanavati-Shah commission to summon Modi and his ministers and question them about their role in the riots. However, the commission kept its order pending.
JSM submitted another application in November 2007 but the commission kept mum again. Meanwhile, Justice (retired) K G Shah expired in March 2008 and Justice (retd) Akshay Mehta was appointed in his place.
As there were several allegations against Justice Mehta favouring saffronites and riot accused in granting them bails as judge of the Gujarat high court, JSM demanded his removal. JSM boycotted the proceedings after the state government turned down its demand.
However, JSM made another application about 10 days ago stating that when the apex court had ordered probe into the roles of Modi and other ruling party politicians, the commission was well within its rights to summon the chief minister and his former cabinet colleagues.