Daijiworld Media Network - Ahemdabad (SHP)

Ahemdabad, Dec 11: The Gujarat government has submitted the final part of the Justice Nanavati-Mehta Commission report on the 2002 riots, in the Assembly on Wednesday. The report deals with post-Godhra violence in which more than 1,000 people were killed in the widespread communal riots across the state.

Earlier today, the then chief minister Narendra Modi and others who were accused in the post-Godhara riots were given clean chit by the Commission. The Commission clarified that the government and the state administration had taken all the necessary measures to control the situation.

They pointed out that the police was incompetent, ineffective at some places causing failure to curb the mob violence.

The first part of the report was submitted in the Assembly in 2009. It dealt with the Godhra train burning incident, where 59 Kar Sevaks returning from Ayodhya were charred to death after a bogey of the Sabarmati Express was set afire by a mob near Godhra railway station.

The two-member inquiry commission submitted its final report containing part two on November 18, 2014, to then chief minister Anandiben Patel, but it was withheld by the state government since then.

In September this year, the state government stated in the Gujarat High Court that a second part of the report will be tabled in the next Assembly session. The assurance was in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by former IPS officer R B Sreekumar, seeking a direction from the High Court to the government to make the report public.

Sreekumar filed affidavits before the commission and questioned the 'inaction' by the state government during the post-Godhra riots. In 2015, he had made a representation to Patel, demanding that the entire report be made public.

Back on February 28, 2002, the then chief minister Narendra Modi set up a one-man commission to investigate the cause of the Godhra train burning incident and subsequent communal violence.

The government later reconstituted the commission, with Justice G T Nanavati, a former Supreme Court judge, as its chairman and Justice K G Shah, a former High Court judge, as a member.

Following the death of Justice Shah, Justice A K Mehta, a former High Court judge was appointed.

The government had also expanded the terms of reference of the commission, bringing under its purview role and conduct of the chief minister, ministers and police officers during the riots.

The commission was originally given six months to conduct the inquiry and submit the report, but after over a dozen extensions, the first part of the report was submitted in 2009 and the final report in 2014.