Gujarat carnage 2002 is a blot on the fair name of our democratic and multi-religious country. It will remain so unless justice is done to the victims and culprits are punished by due course of law.
It is a matter of satisfaction that at least after a lapse of six years the Supreme Court took up the case of 14 most ghastly cases of Gujarat massacre which include Naroda, Naroda Patiya, Sardarpura and Gulbarg Society where former Congress M.P. Ehsan Jaffrey was tortured and hacked to pieces and finally burnt to death before thousands of spectators. It is heartening to learn that National Human Rights Commission had filed this case praying for reinvestigation and transfer of these cases to another State. It had also prayed for handing over of these cases to CBI. It appears that the Apex Court does not want to discredit the Government of Gujarat fully. Therefore it has confined itself to order constitution of a Special Investigation Team (within the stipulated time of 10 days) for reinvestigation of the cases. Thus the Supreme Court adopted the middle path. How far the move will help meet the demands of justice would be watched with interest by the civil society.
It was intervention by the Supreme Court in the Bilkis Bano and Best Bakery cases that the culprits were sentenced to various terms. Otherwise these cases were closed by the lower judiciary in Gujarat. It is a sad comment on the justice delivery system in Gujarat. It would have been in the fitness of things if Gujarat High Court would have kept an eye on the working of lower judiciary in these cases.
After the shameful carnage, which had the blessings of Modi and his government, in which secret orders were given that perpetrators of crimes against humanity should not be obstructed for three days, the government machinery, law and order machinery and lower judiciary collaborated with each other to give protection to criminals. The Central Government of Vajpayee and Advani was also looking the other way. Most of the cases were closed under the excuse of insufficient proof or some other lame excuses. Here also the Supreme Court stepped in and issued orders to reopen about 2000 closed cases. It is another matter that these cases are moving with snail’s pace.
Now, as a good step has been taken, the Supreme Court and the civil society must keep a vigil and continue monitoring of the investigation of cases. Most of the cases failed because the public prosecutors were the office bearers of VHP and RSS. It means the very murderers or their friends were given the duty of delivery of justice. The Supreme Court must see to it that murderous elements should be thrown out lock, stock and barrel.
The Supreme Court has entrusted the Godhra train burning case also to the SIT. More than 100 persons accused of train burning are languishing in jails under draconian POTA. It is strange that no POTA was invoked against even one single person from among the murderers of 2000 men, women and children while it has been invoked against the accused of train burning. What a travesty of justice! The Supreme Court must take up this case also. The fact is that Central Government’s POTA Review Committee had long back recommended that the cases of 100 Godhra accused do not warrant invocation of POTA. It should be investigated by the SIT whether the core to fabricated evidence against the hapless 100 is sufficient to try them under the draconian law. The world is watching whether our justice delivery system works properly or fails miserably.