Godhra violence: BJP lodges complaint with EC

Ahmedabad, Oct 28: The BJP in Gujarat today lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against the District Magistrate of Ahmedabad for allegedly restraining the media from releasing the reports related to 2002 Post-Godhra violence. BJP general secretary Jayantilal Barot, in his complaint to the Chief Election Officer of Gujarat, said ''The District Magistrate of Ahmedabad has acted in contravention to the provisions of the code of conduct by passing an order, restraining the media channels (Aaj Tak, CNN IBN, NDTV among others) from releasing the retrospective riots reports for the reasons best known to him.''

The Action of the District Magistrate was beyond the purview of the code of conduct as well as purview of the Representative of Peoples' Act and the Constitution of India, he claimed in the complaint.

''Therefore, by way of this application, it is hereby brought to your notice that appropriate steps may be initiated against the District Magistrate of Ahmedabad for passing such orders that are ex-facie illegal, arbitrary and beyond the purview of the powers of the Election Commission, which ought not to have been passed as a delegated officer of the Election Commission of India,'' said the letter.

'In our opinion a cloud has been created by the Opposition with an intention to tarnish the image of the BJP Government regarding the monitoring and regulation of such kind of events and news.'' It had again attempted to instigate the District Magistrate to pass such kind of suo-moto orders which were in contravention to any law in force for the time being, the letter added.

''Therefore, the Election Commission, as a constitutional authority, is required to initiate mandatory steps against District Magistrate. UNI