The Hindu : National : "Sabarmati Express attack not a conspiracy"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

National

National

"Sabarmati Express attack not a conspiracy"

J. Venkatesan

No prima facie case to invoke POTA charges against the accused

NEW DELHI: The Central Review Committee under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) has demolished the "conspiracy" theory of the Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat. The Government had said that the torching of the Sabarmati Express in Godhra was a pre-planned terrorist attack pursuant to a conspiracy to attack `kar sevaks' on that train. Holding that there was no prima facie case to invoke POTA charges against the accused in the case, the Committee headed by Justice S.C. Jain has directed the Public Prosecutor of the Designated POTA court to file appropriate application under Section 321 Cr.P.C. (to withdraw POTA charges against the accused) without any delay. The Public Prosecutor was also directed to place before the POTA Court the committee's opinion for passing appropriate orders.

(According to Nitya Ramakrishnan, counsel for some of the accused, the decision of the Committee was binding on the State Government, the Public Prosecutor and the POTA Court to drop the POTA charges.)

The committee held that there was no prima facie evidence to charge the accused under POTA. It held that for an offence to be a terrorist conspiracy, it must be done with the intention of threatening the unity and integrity of the country or terrorising the people. In the Godhra case, the incident had occurred due to an altercation between the passengers and tea vendors and there was nothing to remotely suggest that there was any conspiracy to burn the S-6 coach or to kill the `kar sevaks'.

The Committee said that it was evident that a mob had collected spontaneously on hearing that a Muslim girl was being abducted from the platform and there was an altercation between `kar sevaks' and a Muslim tea vendor. It pointed out that in the first chargesheet filed on May 22, 2002 the prosecution had not mentioned anything about the terrorist act under POTA.

It was only in the supplementary chargesheet filed on September 20, 2002 that the prosecution had invoked POTA against 90 accused. But on March 5, 2003, the investigating officer filed an affidavit for dropping POTA charges.

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