The Hindu : Gujarat official defends Public Prosecutors

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Sunday, Sep 21, 2003

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Gujarat official defends Public Prosecutors

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD Sept. 20. The Gujarat Chief Secretary, P.K. Laheri, who was summoned by the Supreme Court on Friday along with the State Director-General of Police in the Best Bakery case, has defended the appointment of new Public Prosecutors for trying the sensitive communal riot-related cases.

In an informal chat with mediapersons here today, Mr. Laheri admitted that most of the Public Prosecutors appointed to try sensitive cases happened to be persons connected with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, but refused to accept that there was any "deliberate design" behind it.

"That is the way the system functions in all the States, there is nothing new and special about Gujarat," he said pointing out that in most of the States, even the Advocates-General were political appointees and it was only natural that the legal cells were formed by the people sympathising with the party in power. It was only in Gujarat, he claimed, that the Advocates-General were not changed even with the change of the Government for many years.

As per the records, the Public Prosecutor appointed to try the Sardarpura case in Mehsana district where about 33 persons were burnt alive, and the Dipda Darwaja case in Visnagar in the same district, where 11 persons were killed, was the VHP State general secretary, Dillip Trivedi. For the controversial Naroda-Patiya and Gulmarg Society cases in Ahmedabad, where over 140 persons were burnt alive, the Public Prosecutor appointed was Chetan Shah, who was in the VHP advocates' panel for over two decades. The Public Prosecutor for trying the 121 riot cases in the Panchamahals district was Piyush Gandhi, president of the district VHP. For the riot cases in Anand and Kaira districts, the Public Prosecutor was a known RSS and VHP sympathiser, P. S. Dhora. And the Public Prosecutor for the Best Bakery case was a close relative of the Vadodara city VHP president, Ajay Joshi.

In almost all the riot-affected districts, the Public Prosecutors trying the cases in which VHP and other Sangh Parivar activists were the main accused, happened to be VHP or Sangh Parivar supporters. Mr. Laheri, however, pointed out that all the appointments had been made "in consultation and with the approval of the district judges concerned'' based on the experience and merit of the advocates on the government panels.

He said the present system did not prevent the lawyers from joining or sympathising with any political party or other organisations and that there was no way to prevent a person from being appointed Public Prosecutor because of his or her political background.

He agreed that the credibility of the State Government after the Best Bakery acquittal had taken a dip because the case was handled by the VHP activists even though the Government "in no way tried to influence the judgment of the Vadodara fast track court".

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