It is a black Wednesday for the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and his government as a bench of the Gujarat high court held it responsible for inaction during the 2002 riots as well as for destruction and damage to religious places across the state during the period. The court ordered compensation for more than 500 religious structures damaged during that period.
A bench of the acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala, said, “The fact remains that the anarchy continued unabated for days (during riots). When according to the state, the riots broke out as a general reaction from the unfortunate incident of Sabarmati Express at Godhra as disclosed in its affidavit, such fact should have been known to the police intelligence and they should have taken appropriate preventive action well in advance.”
The bench rapped the government by observing, “failure on the part of the police intelligence to gather such general reaction in time and to take appropriate timely action definitely comes within the expression “negligence of the state” even if we for the sake of argument accept the defence of the state.”
“Similarly, the fact that the riot continued for several days itself suggests lack of appropriate action or adequate action, if not inaction, on the part of the state in handling the situation,” the bench added.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat in 2003 seeking compensation for 572-odd religious places damaged during the 2002 riots.
The observation is a major blow to the government which is under the scanner for failure to curb riots in the state in aftermath of the Sabarmati Express train carnage at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002.
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