They came, saw nothing, did nothing

Big on hype, small on action. That summed up the first day of the two-member National Human Rights Commission team’s visit to Gujarat. With the visit coming after sudden twists and turns in the Best Bakery case — the acquittal of all the 21 accused as well as the surfacing of the main-witness-who-turned-hostile Zaheera Sheikh in Mumbai — all eyes were on the duo who arrived in Ahmedabad this morning. The two NHRC members — Ajit Bharioke, Registrar of Law, and Sudhir Chowdhary, DIG (Investigations) — spent the day cocooned in the Circuit House Annexe and met no other official except NHRC’s special rapporteur for the state P.G.J. Nampoothri.

On July 3, the NHRC had stated that keeping in view the seriousness of the issue involved in the order of the acquittal in the Best Bakery case, the Commission ‘‘considers it appropriate’’ to depute a team to Vadodara to inspect the records of the case, examine the judgement and all the other relevant materials.

However, the reason why the NHRC had deputed the team seemed to have been forgotten. The team stepped out only three times. They met in-charge Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court J.N. Bhatt for 10 minutes. Then they stepped out for lunch and later went to the local gymkhana.

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The national as well as local mediapersons, cellphones to their ears, pads and mikes in hand, followed the visitors and even waited at the State Guest House, but to no avail. The team stayed silent.

Later speaking to The Indian Express over the telephone, Nampoothri confirmed that apart from the courtesy visit to the Chief Justice, the team did not meet any officials. ‘‘I met the two members and chalked out the agenda for our visit to Vadodara tomorrow,’’ he said. Asked if they would be conducting any hearings at Vadodara, he said: ‘‘Nothing of that sort has been planned as of now.’’