NCM for probe into three atrocity cases

AHMEDABAD, Sept 22: The National Commission for Minorities NCM has asked the State Government to order an inquiry into alleged atrociti...

AHMEDABAD, Sept 22: The National Commission for Minorities NCM has asked the State Government to order an inquiry into alleged atrocities against minorities.

NCM chairman Tahir Mahmood, in a signed statement on Tuesday, said the State Government should order proper, effective and time-bound investigations by its highest-level agencies immediately into three incidents brought to the notice of the Commission by its fact-finding team which had visited the State last month.

8220;The Commission is constrained to express its serious concern on the situation in Gujarat on communal front after receiving a report of its team,8221; the statement, also signed by NCM vice-chairman Bawa Singh, said, adding the fundamental rights of individuals were being violated.

The Commission pointed out that in some cases the basic human right of citizens to freely choose a life-partner, ensured by Indian matrimonial laws, had been infringed upon as many such cases were reported by the team and other sources.

The three incidents mentioned for inquiry related to the alleged exhuming of a body from a Christian cemetery in Kapedganj town of Kheda district, burning of the Bible at a missionary school in Rajkot and harassment of Muslims of village Randhikpur in Panchmahals district as a reaction to inter-religious marriages, the statement said.

The Commission had sent a five-member team, under Rev James Massey, to hold hearings at Rajkot, Surat and Ahmedabad in the first half of August, following reports and complaints of atrocities on minorities. The State Government had grudgingly co-operated with the team amid murmurs of protests from BJP leaders against the 8220;uncalled for8221; visit.

BJP MPs and MLAs, assisted by VHP-Bajrang Dal activists, had attempted to dilute the Commission proceedings by creating rumpus at the hearing venues at Ahmedabad and Surat by seeking to produce alleged victims of 8220;harassment by minorities8221; before the visiting team.

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On the other hand, BJP official spokesman Bharat Pandya had said the Commission had no locus standi to send its team 8220;directly8221; without consulting the State Government or without seeking facts and figures from it. Surendranagar MP Bhavnaben Dave and Naroda MLA Maya Kodnani who met the team in Ahmedabad, had unsuccessfully sought to present the Randhikpur case as a feminist issue. However, they were advised to approach the National Commission for Women in that case.