This is the longest period that the commission, which has been conducting an enquiry into the riot cases for the last seven years, has taken to consider any application.
The application filed by the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), which sought to summon chief minister Narendra Modi and others for their alleged roles in the 2002 riots, has been pending with the Justice Nanavati and Mehta Commission for more than two years.
This is the longest period that the commission, which has been conducting an enquiry into the riot cases for the last seven years, has taken to consider any application. The JSM, which represents some of the accused in the Sabarmati Express carnage case and victims of the Godhra riots, had moved an application in this regard in April 2007.
The organisation demanded that chief minister Narendra Modi, former health minister Ashok Bhatt, former home minister Gordhan Zadaphia, IPS officer RJ Sawani and three officers of the chief minister’s office, including Tanmay Mehta and Sanjay Bhavsar, be summoned.
The JSM moved this application on the basis of the mobile phone call data and CD submitted by IPS officer Rahul Sharma. According to the application, the two ministers, officers of the CMO and Sawani should be cross-examined before the commission, as they had communicated with the accused in the Naroda Patia, Naroda gaam and Gulbarg society massacre cass. However, the application came up for hearing only after four months, when the JSM moved a reminder application on August 31, 2007.
The JSM then moved another application after Justice (Retired) Akshay Mehta took charge as the second member of the commission following the demise of Justice KG Shah and after the Gujarat high court endorsed Sharma’s CD. The hearing of the latest application concluded this June.
Earlier, the state government had opposed the application by raising the question of the ‘authenticity’ of the CD. The state government cited the statements of crime branch officials, and the hearing ran for more than six months on this single issue.
Earlier, in March 2005, the hearing of another application filed by the JSM, seeking to summon KR Narayanan, former president of India, and his letter to former prime minister AB Vajpayee, also took a year.
The application had been moved after Narayan’s remarks in a Kerala-based newspaper, in which “he had asked Vajpayee to deploy the army to control the riots”. Meanwhile, Narayanan died in November 2005. Sinha then sought the letter from the president’s house also by moving another application.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}