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Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

National

National

Judicial panel to probe attack

Manas Dasgupta

Conspiracy angle to be investigated; report to be submitted in three months

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat Government has appointed a judicial inquiry commission to look into the allegations of the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, of "conspiracy and murderous attack'' on him during his visit to the Sabarmati Express accident site at Samalaya station and the SSG hospital in Vadodara on April 21.

A retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, N. B. Patel, will constitute the one-man inquiry commission and will submit his report to the State Government in three months, an official spokesman of the State Government said.

Mr. Prasad had squarely blamed the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, for the attack on him by the Sangh Parivar activists, both at the accident site and later when he visited the hospital in Vadodara, where most of the deceased in the accident were kept and injured were accommodated. He had to cut short his visit and return to Delhi due to continuous heckling by the demonstrators, who also allegedly stoned his car, breaking the windshield. Mr. Prasad had criticised the "lack of security provided by the State Government" and alleged that someone had tried to set the car ablaze to "murder him.''

The spokesman said the inquiry commission would review the entire episode and would inquire security lapses, if any, co-ordination between various State and Central Government agencies, lapses in protocol and other concerned issues. The commission would also try to find out if there was any "pre-planned conspiracy'' behind the attack on the Railway Minister and inquire if there was any truth in the allegations he made.

Constitution of the commission, the State Government believed, could prevent the Centre from initiating such a move which could be more damaging to the Narendra Modi Government. An initiative by the Centre was not ruled out in view of the report by the Governor, Nawal Kishore Sharma, on the issue.

In his report sent to the Union Home Ministry on Saturday along with another report sent by the State Government, the Governor is believed to have pointed out to some lacunae in the security arrangements by the State Government during Mr. Prasad's visit. The report, it is learnt, had pointed out that even after the demonstration against Mr. Prasad at the accident site, security at the SSG hospital — his next spot of visit — was not adequately strengthened to prevent the "ugly scenes" that followed leading to stone throwing and alleged attack on him. His two-page report is also believed to have castigated the police and the Government officials present on the spot for soft-handling of the demonstrators only because they belonged to the BJP and its sister concerns.

Helper arrested

The police have arrested the Samalaya helper, Podu Puna, from his hideout in the Panchamahals district and have brought him to Vadodara for interrogation. Podu, who is believed to have tampered with the automatic interlocking system, wrongly putting the Sabarmati Express on the same track where a goods train was halting, was absconding since the accident.

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