Author: Agencies
Publication: The Times of India
Date: May 19, 2003
Justice G T Nanavati, heading the
two-member commission to probe the Godhra train carnage and the riots that
followed last year, said on Sunday that the evidence recorded so far did
not indicate any serious lapse on the part of the police or administration
in controlling the communal clashes that followed the Godhra mayhem.
The GT Nanavati and KG Shah Commission,
which has completed the task of recording evidence in all the areas except
the most-affected Ahemdabad and Vadodara districts as also Bharuch and
Narmada will begin its last leg of recording evidence from July 15 in the
four districts.
Asked about the evidence so far
collected on the role of police and district administrations, Justice Nanavati
said that "the evidence recorded so far in other districts do not show
any serious lapse on the part of police and the civil administration".
The commission was appointed on
March 6, 2002 and the scope of the probe was limited to the incidents till
April 30, 2002 beginning with the train carnage on February 27, 2002.
Meanwhile, although the commission
completed recording of testimonies in the Godhra carnage, some of its riot
hearings scheduled in regions around the Vadodara district could not be
conducted on account of the fragile communal situation prevailing in these
areas and had to be rescheduled.
Incidentally, the Concerned Citizen's
Tribunal which has already brought out its report based on testimonies
of affected persons and government functionaries, has already indicated
complicity on the part of the government and named the persons responsible
for the post-Godhra riots.
The Nanavati and Shah commission
was scheduled to submit its report in June 2003.
Going through the strenuous process
of visiting each and every district headquarters of the affected areas,
the commission had given time to one and all to file additional affidavits
on the alleged incidents that had taken place in their locality in February-March
last year.
"An additional opportunity has been
given to those who have missed the opportunity to file the affidavit and
to all concerned to say whatever they want to say before the commission
on the incidents," Justice Nanavati said.
Prior to recording the evidence
in Ahmedabad and Vadodara, the two cities which were most severely affected
in the riots, the commission will complete the task in Bharuch and Narmada,
he said.
