During an informal discussion with Justice GT Nanavati, Sanjeev Bhatt said, the Nanavati commission should look into IB reports prepared in March, 2002.
IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt, on Wednesday, insisted before the Nanavati commission that it should look into the report of the state Intelligence Bureau (IB) in connection with the Sabarmati Express train carnage at Godhra on February, 27, 2002.
During an informal discussion with Justice GT Nanavati, Bhatt said, the commission should look into IB reports prepared in March, 2002 as 'truth lies somewhere else — between the theory of pre-planned conspiracy and accidental fire’’.
The discussion started after Bhatt's questioning about Terms of Reference (ToR) of the commission related to the Godhra train carnage case stating that as per the terms of reference, it was presumed that the Godhra train burning incident was not an accident.
Bhatt, when he was deputy commissioner of IB in 2002, had prepared a report about the Sabarmati train carnage and submitted it to the state IB.
Earlier, during his cross-examination, he requested the commission to call upon that report. Earlier, the UC Banerjee committee set up by the railway ministry to look into the matter had stated that the fire in S6 coach of Sabarmati carnage was caused by an accident.
But the Nanavati commission, in 2009, concluded that the Sabarmati Express carnage was a pre-planned conspiracy.
The findings of the inquiry commission were also upheld as the Special court looking into the Sabarmati carnage arrived at the same judgment this year.
The conversation between the cop and justice Nanavati took place after the commission delivered its order rejecting Bhatt's plea to stall his cross examination. The talk happened while the written order of the commission was being awaited.
Justice Nanavati, who heads the commission tried to explain that he was reluctant for the job and how this is a mammoth task for the commission.
"I was reluctant to take up this job at that time (2002)," he said, during a discussion on the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the commission.
Nanavati said that initially it had been decided that a sitting Supreme Court judge would head the commission, but no one was available, so government settled for a retired judge.
"There were only two retired judges at that time -Justice Majmudar, and me. Majmudar was already entrusted with an assignment related to Narmada by the Supreme Court," he added.
Nanavati said he was living in Delhi in 2002 and was busy with some other assignment. He further said that he always knew that he would face criticism in the new job.
The judge further said, "This is not a small task. There are more than 2,000 incidents to be examined and there are 4,000 complaints."
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