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Gujarat Updates; New Law on Communal Violence
July 7, 2004 | Comments Off on Gujarat Updates; New Law on Communal Violence
In the process of re-investigating cases arising from the 2002 Gujarat pogroms of Muslims, as ordered by the Supreme Court in December 2003, the Gujarat police recently arrested 27 people and registered a First Information Report:
Five persons were arrested on June 27 for their alleged involvement in the massacre of six persons of a minority community in Derol village of Kalol Taluka while 15, who were allegedly involved in the massacre of 17 members of a minority community in Delol village, about 30 km from Godhra, were arrested on June 24, both in Panchmahals district during the post-Godhra communal riots on March 1, 2002.
Even as six others were arrested over the past two weeks, one person was arrested last evening at Vadodara for his alleged involvement in the killing of 11 persons of a minority community near Ambica Society near Kalol town.
Following the Supreme Court’s order, the Gujarat government had appointed Neerja Rao Gotru for the reinvestigation.
The controversy continues over the appointment of the public prosecutor for the Best Bakery trial, being reheard in Maharasthra after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial outside of Gujarat:
The judge had earlier asked both states to come to a consensus by today, failing which he would refer the matter to the apex court. At today’s hearing, Vakil, the counsel for the Maharashtra government, said the states had held a meeting but failed to arrive at a consensus.
[Advocate for the prime witness, Mihir] Desai pleaded that his client Zahira, being a petitioner before the Supreme Court, had the right to approach it to seek a clarification on the matter.
Moreover, a new prosecutor was to be appointed in consultation with the victims in keeping with the apex court guidelines, he argued.
The trial has been delayed until July 19.
The proceedings of the Nanavati Commission, currently investigating the Godhra carnage, were delayed for the second time after a police officer claimed he was sick. The last hearings had challenged the idea of the Godhra carnage as a pre-planned conspiracy:
In-charge of a police station in Bhavnagar during the 2002 riots, D.S. Thakore, now posted in Kheda district, was scheduled to be cross-examined on Tuesday. But he sent a sick note to the panel, thus forcing the day’s hearings to be cancelled.
Thakore is the third police officer to report sick and thus excuse himself from being cross-examined by advocate Mukul Sinha who is representing several NGOs espousing the cause of the riot victims and survivors.
Previously on June 29, Godhra deputy superintendent of police Noel Parmar reported sick and didn’t turn up for cross-examination. Assistant commissioner of police P.P. Pandey excused himself on July 5.
The Commission stated that if police officers continued this practice, it would issue warrants requiring their appearance. The Commission will resume hearings on July 26. At the same time, there were hints that the government might establish a new commission, with the extended scope of investigating the role of the Modi government.
The government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is discussing a new law to ensure that such instances of organized violence against religious communities, such as the pogroms against Sikhs in November 1984, do not recur. However, international impunity and reparation principles clearly delineate possible guarantees of non-recurrence which the Indian government has not taken seriously. For example, instead of removing perpetrators from senior positions, the government recently appointed two perpetrators of the November 1984 pogroms of Sikhs to ministerial positions.
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