The Hindu : National : President rejects plea of Nanavati panel

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Saturday, Dec 10, 2005

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National

President rejects plea of Nanavati panel

Manas Dasgupta

No further correspondence on K.R. Narayan's letter to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, says Secretariat

AHMEDABAD : The Presidential Secretariat has finally rung the curtain down on the Nanavati-Shah Commission's request for a copy of the former president K. R. Narayan's letter to the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on the Gujarat communal riots.

In its reply to the Commission's letter of November 21, P. M. Nair, Secretary to the President, has said that no further correspondence on the subject would be entertainedand askedthe Commission to take up the matter with the Central Government if it desired. The Centre had earlier turned down its request for a copy of the letter.

In yet another development, the secretary to the erstwhile high-level U. C. Bannerjee Committee probing the Godhra train carnage virtually turned down the Commission's "summons" of November 21 to produce relevant documents concerning the train carnage before it.

In its letter, committee secretary Achala Sinha toldtheCommission that the Bannerjee Committee had since been upgraded to the level of a Commission under the Commission of Inquiry Act through an order of the Railway Board and that it enjoyed the powers and status of a civil court such as the Nanavati-Shah Commission.

On an application filed by Dr. Sinha, advocate for the riot victims, the Commission on Friday issued an order to the Railways to furnish a copy of the reported message by an Assistant Sub-Inspector of the Railway Protection Force at Dahod railway station, Ratnabhai, to a head constable at Godhra, Lakhabhai, on the day of the train carnage.

In his message, Ratnabhai had reportedly alerted the Godhra railway police about the possible trouble at Godhra in view of the "behaviour" of the "kar sevaks" travelling by the Sabarmati Express at the Dahod station.

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