Those who are missing since the 2002 post Godhra communal riots in Gujarat are soon to be declared dead by the authorities with the expiry of seven years' stipulated time.
Those who are missing since the 2002 post Godhra communal riots in Gujarat are soon to be declared dead by the authorities with the expiry of seven years' stipulated time.
As a result, official death figure of 2002 riots will go up from 952 to 1180, as 228 persons, who are missing willbe presumed to be dead after seven years. As per the law, any person, who is missing for seven years, is declared dead after the stipulated period.
"We have prepared a list of missing people and sent it to the revenue department, which would declare the missing persons as dead," additional chief secretary (Home) Balwant Singh said.
The State Revenue Department would send the details to the district collectorates for the subsequent process. Meanwhile, Ahmedabad collector Harit Shukla said the
final list of missing people from the police is awaited.
"Once we have the list, we will start the process of declaring them as dead, inform the civic authorities to prepare their death certificate and subsequently, compensation claims will be processed," he added.
In the aftermath of the communal carnage, a total number of 413 people had disappeared of which 185 people were found while 228 are missing. The 228 missing people also includes 24 children and 27 women.
"As per the procedure of law, we will have to revise the final figure of 2002 riots as missing persons are presumed as dead after seven years," a senior official said.
He said that the process in this regard has been initiated and will be completed by the first week of March as most of the people went missing from February 27 to March 5,
2002.
The largest number of missing persons are from Ahmedabad city with the figures of 99, while in Panchamahal 76, Dahod 17, Ahmedabad district 9, Sabarkantha 9, Baroda 15, Anand two and Surat one are missing.
Families of those, who are missing would be able to claim full compensation as paid to those who died during the riots, officials said. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing some of the cases afresh, has already revised death toll of Naroda Patia and Naroda village massacres.
In Naroda Patia case, the official figure 83 has been revised to 93 while Naroda village toll has gone up to 11 from earlier 8, SIT officials added.
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