Indian state govt cleared for 2002 Gujarat riot

A judicial commission, which probed the deadly communal riots that claimed 1,000 lives, mostly of the Muslim community, in India's Gujarat in 2002, gave a clean chit to the then state government headed by Narendra Modi.

The report of the commission headed by Justice G T Nanavati, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, was tabled in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly by Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja today, five years after it was submitted to the then state government.

"There is no evidence to show that these (communal) attacks were either inspired or instigated or abated by any minister of the state," the commission said in its report which runs over 1,500 pages and is compiled in nine volumes.

It, however, said the police at some places were ineffective in controlling the mob because of their inadequate numbers or because they were not properly armed.

On some communal riot incidents in Ahmedabad city, the commission said "the police had not shown their competence and eagerness which was necessary." It has recommended an inquiry or action against the erring police officers.

Justice Nanavati and ex-Gujarat High Court Justice Akshay Mehta had in 2014 submitted their final report on the 2002 riots to the then state chief minister Anandiben Patel.

The commission was appointed in 2002 by Modi, the then Gujarat Chief Minister, to probe the riots that had taken place after the burning of two coaches of the Sabarmati Express train near Godhra railway station in which 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed in February that year.