2002 Gujarat riots: HC disposes of plea challenging Nanavati-Mehta Commission order

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind’s application before the Commission had sought that the entire deposition of IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt be struck down from the records and not to allow anybody to cross-examine him.

The organisation had reasoned that Bhatt was not summoned as a witness by the Commission and it must first be clarified whether he is deposing as a “witness” or an “informer”, as his deposition had been allowed without administering him the customary oath.

Bhatt, in his deposition, had claimed that he attended meetings presided over by the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s residence on the morning of February 27, 2002, when the Sabarmati Express plying karsevaks was torched, spurring communal riots across the state.

At the time of the filing of the petition before the Gujarat HC, Bhatt’s deposition before the Commission was underway and the Gujarat government was expected to resume Bhatt’s cross examination.

On Wednesday, advocate Digant Joshi, representing Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, informed the division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee that now the Nanavati-Mehta Commission reports stand submitted and the issue raised in the petition shall not survive.

Taking note of the same, the bench dismissed the petition as having turned infructuous.

The Justice G T Nanavati and Justice Akshay Mehta Commission of Inquiry that investigated the 2002 Godhra train burning and the communal riots that followed submitted its final report to the state in 2014, months after Modi became the Prime Minister and Anandiben Patel took over as the CM of Gujarat.

The final report was made public only in December 2019 when it was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly. The report had given a clean chit into the conduct and role of then CM Modi, his council of ministers, police officials and other political leaders such as from VHP.