Church attacks: Moily demands CBI probe

Terming the Justice BK Somashekara commission report on church attacks as a ‘bundle of lies’, Union law minister M Veerappa Moily has demanded a CBI enquiry into the issue.

He accused the BJP government of having ‘hijacked’ the judicial commission that gave a clean chit to the party and Sangh parivar outfits for the attacks on churches in 2008. Moily said that the commission had failed to protect the interests of the minority Christians in the state.

Addressing the media, Moily demanded that chief minister BS Yeddyurappa order a CBI probe immediately as the truth cannot be suppressed and that a thief will remain a thief.

“Just because a commission gave a report, the truth cannot be buried. It should come out and the state government should make sincere efforts,” he said.

He alleged that the commission’s final report should be read with the interim report and there were contradictions between the two. In its final report submitted on Friday, the commission had failed to name the organisations involved in the attacks and hence CBI should be entrusted with the probe, he said.

Moily said that the attacks on churches in seven districts across the state had caused major embarrassment to the first-ever BJP government in the South, barely four months after it assumed office, following which the judicial inquiry was ordered. “It has now hushed up the issue by this biased report,” Moily alleged.

“Always, any commission’s final report should be taken into account along with the interim report. In this case, it was very clear in the interim report submitted in February 2010, where there was a mention about the involvement of Bajrang Dal and the failure on the part of police and the district administrations in discharging their duties,” he claimed.