Srikrishna Report: NCM team to meet Mah CM

New Delhi, Aug 7 (UNI) With a Supreme Court decision last week opening a legal window for action on the Srikrishna Report on Mumbai riots of 1992-93, a team of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is going to Mumbai on August 18 to meet Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and other high functionaries of the state to press for bringing to book the guilty named in the Report.

The apex court in response to a petition has asked the Maharashtra government to file details of cases against those involved in the communal flare up.

The NCM team, led by senior most member of the Commission Harcharan Josh, will comprise Duleep Padgaonkar, Dr Zoya Hasan and Michael M Pinto.

Mr Josh told UNI that during their three-day stay, they will meet the Chief Minister and impress upon him the need of initiating urgent action on the recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission which inquired into the communal violence that rocked Mumbai in the wake of Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The Report has been placed in the Maharashtra Assembly and accepted, but the state government has put the matter on hold saying the matter was sub-judice.

''Now that the Supreme Court ruling last week cleared the way for action by the state government, it was high time that the Maharashtra government acted to ensure that no citizen was deprived of justice,'' said Mr Josh.

Justice B M Srikrishna, in his report, had indicted several Shiv Sena and BJP activists and leaders for their involvement in the riots.

The Supreme Court had last week asked petitioners seeking implementation of the Report, to file an affidavit detailing the Maharashtra Government's alleged lapses in taking action against those involved in the riots.

The court had, however, said it could not pass any specific direction merely on the basis of the findings of an inquiry commission report.

''If there is complete failure of justice it will be certainly looked into but it has also to be seen that it was only an inquiry report and the action has to be taken by the government,'' ''It is not possible for this court to go meticulously into each case. But a general direction can be issued for taking action where there were gross lapses,'' the court had added.

UNI