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National

Same premise, divergent conclusions

Manas Dasgupta

Both probes agreed that coach was heavily overcrowded

Nanavati panel relies heavily on railway officials’ version
Truth can never be ignored for long, says Modi

GANDHINAGAR: The Nanavati-Mehta and U.C. Banerjee reports have surprisingly come to totally contradictory conclusions from the same premise that “no mischief” was possible aboard the ill-fated S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra because it was “heavily overcrowded” on its run from Lucknow to Ahmedabad on February 27, 2002.

Following the Godhra fire, Gujarat was engulfed in communal violence and rioting.

Both probes accepted that in the 72-passenger capacity coach, nearly 200 people were travelling, occupying almost every inch of space including toilets.

The Banerjee committee, set up by Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, concluded that it was not possible for anyone from outside to enter the coach and pour petrol to set it ablaze, and it was a case of accidental fire. The State government-appointed Nanavati commission, on the same premise, said it was not possible for anyone in such an overcrowded coach to light a stove for cooking and therefore it was not a case of accident but a “conspiracy” to set it afire.

“Is it possible that any miscreant or a few of the miscreants could enter the coach and pour 60 litres of petrol and have the same ignited in the presence of 150-200 people belonging to the VHP or the Bajrang Dal,” the Banerjee committee asked in its report submitted to the Railway Ministry in 2006.

In contrast, the Nanavati-Mehta commission, which submitted its report on September 18 and which was tabled in the Assembly on Thursday, said: “It would be highly unreasonable to believe that in such a circumstance, some passenger had thought it fit to cook food. It was almost impossible to do so in view of the overcrowding in the coach. The co-passengers would not have allowed it.”

The Nanavati commission further said: “Even if it is assumed that someone had started cooking earlier, after the fearsome attack on the coach, he would have stopped doing so. If it were a case of the Primus getting overturned and kerosene spilling on the floor of the coach, it would not have led to such a big and sudden fire. The commission comes to the conclusion that in view of the proved facts and circumstances, fire having broken out accidentally has to be ruled out even as a probable cause and the suggestion to that effect has to be discarded as mere speculation.”

While the Banerjee committee indicted the former divisional railway manager of Vadodara, B.B. Modgil, and a senior officer of the Railway Protection Force for “callous reports” — both filed their first information report saying the coach had been set afire by a rowdy mob — the Nanavati commission heavily relied on their versions as being true and accurate. It also quoted various other railway and RPF staff present at the station at the time of the incident to base its conclusion that it was a “pre-planned conspiracy” to attack the train by local Muslims to “kill the Hindus” travelling by it.

Minister’s statement

The 168-page report of the Nanavati commission is a reproduction, almost in toto, of a six-page statement Minister of State for Home Amit Shah made in the Assembly on March 6, 2006, asserting that the train carnage was nothing but a “pre-planned conspiracy.”

The names of many of the 113 people, arrested by the State police and who are facing trial in the special POTA court, have found a mention in the Nanavati report as conspirators and as having participated in the heinous crime.

As mentioned in Mr. Shah’s statement, the Nanavati commission has also found the Aman guest house (near the Godhra station), owned by Abdul Razak Kurkure, as the venue where the “conspiracy” was hatched the previous night, and where about 140 litres of petrol was collected and the coach set afire the next morning.

Mr. Shah claimed that the Banerjee committee had in several respects contradicted the claims of the Railways itself about the safety of coaches and the alarm system.

Modi demands apology

Chief Minister Narendra Modi hailed the Nanavati report and said the “truth” could never be ignored for long.

He demanded a “public apology” from all those who were trying to “defame Gujarat” in the name of the Godhra train carnage.

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