Report on Mangalore attacks up for review

The attacks on churches and minority institutions in 2007-08 is again emerging as a hot issue in the state, as the state government has decided to take a closer look at the Justice Somashekar Committee Report submitted in 2011.

Home minister KJ George on Wednesday asserted that he was not happy with the Justice Somashekar Committee Report and if there were any more demands from the affected people to review the report, he would heed it.

Recalling that the MLA of Mangalore City South Constituency, JR Lobo, demanded on the floor of the assembly a session for such a review, George said the attacks were carried out during the previous regime. He said a committee headed by Justice Somashekar was appointed by the government despite the protests of the leaders of the minority community.

“If the committee report is not acceptable to those who were affected, we are allowed to have a re-look at it,” George said.

Various left-wing activists, community leaders and groups of affected people had disapproved of the committee report after it was made public in 2011. They had alleged that the BJP-led government had tutored the authors of report and many innocent youngsters have been facing cases of rioting while many perpetrators of the attacks have gone scot-free owing to the political influence then exerted by the BJP.

If the present government decided to review the report, it was likely to open a Pandora’s box and many issues may come up into the public domain.

“After two years of inquiry into the incidents of attack, the Somashekar Committee has not indicted anybody in the report, each chapter of his report contradicted the other, there appears to be no accountability in the report as it has not led to the arrest of the right people or even ensured action against those who were responsible for the attacks.

“There is no doubt that the Somashekar committee report was cock-eyed and was deliberately kept volatile to favour the party in power,” Lobo said.

“I am happy that the home minister has taken note of my observation on the floor of the house. I definitely hope that he will bring justice to the hundreds of affected people and restore the honour of Mangalore,” Lobo told dna.

There were at least two fact-finding missions taken up by groups of right-thinking people immediately after the attacks. One of them was headed by former high court judge Justice Michael F Saldanha. The report had indicted the BJP government of supporting the communal goons of the fundamental wings of the Sangh Parivar in not just carrying out the attacks, but also protecting them against police and legal action.