Clean chit to Modi in 2002 Guj riots

Our Correspondent

Gandhinagar, December 11

GT Nanavati – Akshay Mehta judicial inquiry commission which probed the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat has given a clean chit to Narendra Modi, then CM, and his Council of Ministers regarding any involvement in the riots, rejecting allegations that Modi had issued “instructions” to the police then to “allow the Hindus to vent their anger against the Muslims.”

The commission's report was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly by Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja on Wednesday, five years after it was submitted to the then government and 17 years after the riots shook the state.

The commission, which partly blamed the “inadequate and ill-equipped” police force and a section of “irresponsible media” for the spread of violence in the state in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage, did not find any evidence to blame the political leaders or civil and police officers for the riots. It described as “negative” the role of three senior IPS officers then — RB Sreekumar, Rahul Sharma and Sanjiv Bhatt — in the riots. Sreekumar and Bhatt had filed affidavits before the commission, raising doubts on the role of the then CM in handling the riots while Bhatt had also filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court , claiming that he was personally present at the “meeting” of senior IAS and IPS officers where Modi reportedly issued “instructions to the police to allow Hindus to vent their anger against the Muslims for three days.” The commission said Bhatt had failed to submit any authentic proof about his “presence” at the meeting or any such instruction issued by Modi.

All three officers are now either retired or suspended from services. Sreekumar said he had not expected anything different from what the report had come out with. "The then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s sanctioning Modi for 'not pursuing raj dharma' and the orders issued by the Supreme Court from time to time concerning various riot cases justifies the allegation that the minorities were discriminated against by the BJP government led by Modi," he said.