Nanavati report gives clean chit to then Modi govt in 2002 Gujarat riots

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File Photo: IANS)


The Nanavati Commission report, tabled in Gujarat assembly on Wednesday, has given a clean chit to the then Narendra Modi government in the state of complicity in the riots post the Godhra incident in 2002.

The report mentioned that the post-Godhra train burning riots were not organized, while clearing the then Modi government.

The report which runs into 1,500 pages, pointed out that there is no direct evidence to implicate the then chief minister or any member of his cabinet in inspiring violence in the riots.

Minister of State for Home Pradeepsinh Jadeja tabled the report in the House, five years after it was submitted to the then state government.

The Nanavati Commission was constituted to probe the allegations that members of then Cabinet fomented violence against minorities in Gujarat.

Retired Justices GT Nanavati and Akshay Mehta had in 2014 submitted their final report on the 2002 riots to the then state chief minister Anandiben Patel.

The commission was appointed in 2002 by the then state chief minister Narendra Modi to probe the riots, that took place after the burning of two coaches of the Sabarmati Express train near Godhra railway station, in which 59 ‘karsevaks’ were killed.

Over a thousand people had lost their lives in the communal riots in 2002. The violence began after 59 people had died when a compartment of the Sabarmati Express full karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, was locked from outside and set ablaze at Godhra.