Nanavati-Shah commission may summon CBI officer for inquiry

Ahmedabad, Mar 29 (UNI) The Nanavati-Shah Commission inquiring into post-Godhra communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, today hinted that if needed it could again summon CBI officer Rahul Sharma before ordering an official probe into the Compact Discs (CDs) submitted to the commission by him last year.

The Commission, comprising Justice (Retd) G T Nanavati (Chairman) and Justice (Retd) K G Shah (Member), today took a serious view of the submission of the CDs by Mr Sharma to the Banerjee Commission, which was appointed to inquire into the Sabarmati Express carnage at Godhra railway station on February 27, 2002. They stated that the commission would first inquire into the motive of CBI officer in doing so.

The issue came up when Advocate Mukul Sinha,counsellor of Jansangarsh Manch, an NGO, disclosed before the commission that he had seen a copy of the CDs and pleaded that he found out that they (CDs) contained relevant information about the post-Godhra riots.

When he was asked how he got the copy of the CDs which are with it (Nanavati Commission), then Mr Sinha disclosed that he had obtained the copy from the Banerjee Commission.

To this, the panel said that it has to find out the motive of Mr Sharma in submitting the copy to the Banerjee Commission as its term of reference was limited to the Sabarmati Express carnage and has nothing to do with the CDs which contained telephone numbers of calls made from mobile phones between February 27 and March 7, 2002, in Ahmedabad.

Adv Sinha also stated that the CDs could throw light on the roles played by the politicians and the top police brass during the riots.

The commission, thereafter, hinted that they needed to inquire into the motives of Mr Sharma and could even summon him again.

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