‘Who ordered destruction of 2002 papers?’
HC Asks Govt About Its Orders On Riot Related Documents
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Thursday asked the state government to place on record its orders by which documents related to the 2002 riots were either destroyed or maintained.
A bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala sought the 2007 communiqué from the government on its application seeking clarification on the HC’s order passed earlier. The high court had earlier asked suspended IPS Sanjiv Bhatt to move the Nanavati commission demanding certain documents belonging to the state intelligence bureau (SIB), on basis of which Bhatt wants to depose before the commission on alleged complicity of the state machinery and chief minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 riots.
When Bhatt requested the commission to direct the government to produce 47 documents, the government raised objection in regards with few documents and declared that some others were destroyed as per the procedure. The commission later set up a two-member inquiry committee to probe the status of documents.
The committee has been asked to conduct inquiry on four aspects in regards with the documents that are either destroyed or the government refuses to part with. When Bhatt had sought an inquiry from the Nanavati commission on this subject and disputed the government’s stand on destruction of documents and their classified nature, the state government filed an application before the high court requesting the court to clarify what it exactly meant in its order. Further hearing on this issue has been kept on February 5.
