Certain intelligence records related to the 2002 riots and the documents related to the movement of the then intelligence chief of Gujarat, G C Raiger, have been destroyed, the additional director general of police (intelligence) has informed the Nanavati-Mehta Commission in a “confidential” report.
The information was made public by Justice (retd) Nanavati on Tuesday during the proceedings of the Commission, which is probing into the 2002 riots.
The Commission had summoned two senior officers, Ashok Narayan and K Chakravartty, who were additional chief secretary (home) and DGP during the 2002 riots, respectively.
During the proceedings today, Justice (retd) Nanavati told one of the lawyers appearing before the Commission that the intelligence records of “C” category had been destroyed under a regular process since they were “useless”.
Nanavati said the records related to the log book entries and vehicle movement registers and were not going to prove much as they would merely register the movement of a vehicle and not of the officers travelling in it.
“Logbooks will not prove what you have imagined,” Nanavati said during the proceedings. He added that apart from the ‘C’ category documents, records related to the then state intelligence chief G C Raiger were also not available.
Justice Nanavati, though, added that all relevant intelligence records related to the year 2002 are available and that the Commission is examining the report submitted by the additional DGP (intelligence).
According to Commission’s secretary C G Patel, the report submitted by the additional DGP (intelligence) is “confidential” and nobody except the Commission itself had access to it. He said an application by Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), a voluntary organisation working for the 2002 riots victims, to have access to the report has also been rejected by the Commission.
Last month, the Commission, on an application by the JSM, had ordered the additional DGP (intelligence) to file a report on the status of intelligence records pertaining to the 2002 riots.
The JSM had cited the “contradictory stands” taken by the state government and its counsel over the existence of crucial 2002 intelligence records and sought clarification.
Senior counsel S B Vakil, who appeared before the Commission on behalf of the state government to question IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, had stated that certain intelligence records related to 2002 riots were destroyed in 2007. Subsequently, however, reports appeared in a section of media that the state government had denied the claim.
Source: Indian Express
