The Hindu : NHRC slams Gujarat Govt., seeks CBI probe

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 02, 2002

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NHRC slams Gujarat Govt., seeks CBI probe

By Our Special Correspondent

New Delhi APRIL1. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), in its preliminary report on the continuing violence in Gujarat, has indicted the State Government for lack of compliance with the rule of law and its human rights obligations.

The Commission has called for all ``critical cases'' of violence to be investigated by the CBI in view of ``the widespread allegations that FIRs have been poorly or wrongly recorded and that investigations are being ``influenced'' by extraneous considerations or players''.

The cases include the Godhra incident and the Gulbarg Society incident in which the former Congress MP, Ehsan Jafri, was a victim. In a sharply-worded report which follows its own visit to the State and the receipt of a ``comprehensive report'' from the Gujarat Government, the NHRC noted that the latter failed to provide necessary information about atrocities mentioned in it.

The NHRC said it could not accept the Gujarat Government's assertions that it had received no ``intelligence'' to warn it of the Godhra incident and that given the ``communal history'' of the State, the events which followed were not surprising. It said that it is the ``primary and inescapable responsibility'' of the State Government to protect the fundamental rights of life, liberty, equality and dignity of the people of Gujarat against actions of its own agents and also of ordinary people.

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