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Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
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Summon Tehelka tapes, citizens group urges the Supreme Court

Legal Correspondent

“Safety and security of victim survivors and witnesses at stake”

New Delhi: Expressing concern over the revelations in the recent Tehelka sting operation, the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) on Saturday moved the Supreme Court for calling for the tapes and for early hearing of the Gujarat riots cases pending for four years.

The application was filed in the transfer cases related to the Godhra arson; Gulberg, Naroda Gaon and Patiya massacres, and Sardarpura and Ode carnage pending since they had been stayed in November 2003.

“Protect evidence”

The CJP alleged that the brazen admission of and gloating by the accused, who were roaming free in Gujarat, over the rape and killing of innocents put the lives of over 190 eyewitnesses and survivors in danger.

The application urged the court to treat the issue with the immediacy of a life threatening situation and “protect the lives of witnesses and the evidence which is likely to be destroyed by the state and its agencies.”

The CJP said, “The safety and security of victim survivors and witnesses, given the high level and brazen patronage of state- sponsored violence in the State, is at stake. As far as criminal trials and the administration of justice are concerned, these revelations [in the Tehelka expose] are indicators that evidence may severely be affected or tampered with by the powers that be in Gujarat.”

Need for urgent hearing

It said, “In the light of this report and the fact that the witnesses are still being threatened and there are allegations of complicity between the killers and not just the police and law and order machinery but sections of the judiciary, the security and safety of the victim survivors and witnesses remains a serious question mark. It is imperative that the matters for re-investigation and transfer out of the State get heard on an urgent basis.”

CJP secretary Teesta Setalwad said that in the last five years, the State had already harmed the trials to a large extent, by repeated obfuscations, falsehoods and delays. Any further delay would only render these trials impossible to prosecute.

The application sought a direction to place the matters for hearing on an urgent basis; summon the original CDs, transcripts and all other material available with Tehelka on its report and to pass other orders the court might deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

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