After being prodded by the Gujarat High Court, the Gujarat Government finally tabled the second part of the Justice Nanavati-Mehta commission report on the floor of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. The report was presented by the state Home Minister Pradipsinh Jadeja.The 3,000-page report in nine volumes also said that there was no premeditated conspiracy behind the communal riots in the state.
The report gives a clean chit to the then Chief Minister of the state and the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
The other leaders who received a clean chit were: late Haren Pandya, Ashokbhai Bhatt and former Minister Bharat Bharot.
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The report has stated that the riots that affected the state after the burning of a coach of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra were not planned and the police force was inefficient in many places while dealing with the riots.
It especially blamed and questioned the role of three senior IPS officers of the state: Sanjiv Bhatt, Rahul Sharma and RB Shreekumar.
The report was earlier presented to the then Chief Minister of the state Anandiben Patel on November 18th, 2014, but wasn’t presented to the Assembly. This prompted former IPS officer RB Shreekumar to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Gujarat High Court in September this year. The government then assured the High Court that the report would be tabled during the next Assembly session.
The burning of the S-6 coach of the train carrying Kar Sevaks who were returning after visiting Ayodhya, triggered large scale riots in the state. The riots killed more than 1000 people in 2002.
Subsequently, CM Narendra Modi on February 2002 announced the setting up of a one -man commission to enquire into both the incidents. The government then reconstituted this into a two-member commission headed by Justice Nanavati, a former Supreme Court Judge and Justice KG Shah, a High Court judge. Justice AK Mehta, also a High Court judge joined in place of Justice Shah after the demise of the latter.
The government set out the terms of reference to the Commission and wanted a time bound inquiry to be completed within six months. It however, kept getting extensions.