The commission, comprising justices G T Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, directed the Gujarat additional director-general of police (ADGP) (Intelligence) to file a report within 10 days detailing which records of the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) were destroyed and which were still available. The commission’s directive came while hearing an application filed by the Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) , an NGO representing the Gujarat riot victims.
Gujarat government counsel S B Vakil had created a flutter last month when he told the media that some documents pertaining to the 2002 Gujarat riots were no longer available as they were destroyed in 2007 following standard procedure.
The JSM had moved the commission following Vakil’s revelation and filed an application seeking directions to the state government that it should clarify whether the SIB records had been destroyed.
JSM application
Stating that the documents in controversy can have direct bearing on the reference pending before the Hon’ble Commission for inquiry, the JSM in its application had pleaded that “the home secretary be directed to file an affidavit to the state as to which specific records of the State Intelligence department was destroyed for the period between February 27, 2002 and May 31,2002.”
In its application, the NGO had also sought fixation of responsibility on the officer who gave the orders to destroy the documents and the reasons for doing so.
“The government should also state and produce the certificate of actual destruction of the documents so destroyed,” JSM had demanded.
Further, the application sought to know “whether any documents or records of the DGP’s office, the DGP’s control room, control rooms of the city Police Commissioners of Ahmedabad, Vadorara, Rajkot and Surat for the period between February 27, 2002, and May 31, 2002, have been destroyed or not.”
The JSM also wanted inspection of the vehicle movement registers (log books) of DGP Chakravarthy, Additional DGP Raigad, Police Commissioner P C Pande, DIC Sanjeev Bhatt as well as the telephone call registers of the State Intelligence Department control room.
The NGO also sought the travel details of Additional DGP Raigad, IGP O P Mathur and the three DICs of the State Intelligence department between February, 27, 2002 and March 3, 2002.