The Nanavati Commission probing the 2002 riots in Gujarat has been granted another extension of six months till December 31 this year by Gujarat government, officials said on Tuesday.
Maulvi Hussain Umarji, the cleric who was branded as the key conspirator of the 2002 Sabarmati Express carnage but was later acquitted, died in Godhra after a prolonged illness, his family said on Monday. Umarji, 65, who had been bed-ridden since his acquittal in February 2011, passed away on Sunday night.
The special investigation team had not conducted any probe on the alleged larger conspiracy in the 2002 Gujarat riots and there was an effort to 'protect' and ensure that people from the Bajrang Dal, police, bureaucracy and others are not prosecuted, Zakia Jafri told the Supreme Court on Thursday.
Four convicts of the Best Bakery case have been shifted to the central jail in the city in Vadodra, official sources said on Monday.
Arun Jaitley, one of the BJP's seniormost leaders and a friend of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in an exclusive conversation with Sheela Bhatt.
The Gujarat government has granted yet another extension of six months to the Nanavati Commission, probing the 2002 post-Godhra riots, officials said on Tuesday.
Security has been stepped up in the city and Godhra town in wake of the 10th anniversary of the Sabarmati Express train carnage, which killed 59 people and triggered large-scale communal violence in many parts of Gujarat in 2002 claiming over 1200 lives.
The 10th anniversary of Godhra train carnage, which left 59 karsevaks dead and triggered one of worst communal riots in Gujarat that claimed the lives of over 1200 Muslims, will be marked today by a slew of events with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad taking out a rally and Non-Governmental Organisations coming together to demand justice for the riot victims.
The Gujarat high court on Wednesday termed the 2002 post-Godhra riots as a result of "negligence of the state" and censured the state government for "inaction", holding that it led to an "anarchic" situation.
Father Fredrick Prakash, who runs a non-governmental organisation 'Prashant', told rediff.com that the organisation would be releasing selective audio-visual clippings that reportedly establish Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's complicity in the riots following the burning of Sabarmati Express in Godhra on February 27, 2002
Krishnakumar Padmanabhan finds hope, despair and anger in Godhra.
The chronology of the case related to the 2002 Godhra train carnage and the communal violence that followed the incident.
Justice U C Banerjee, who had described the Godhra train carnage as "accidental", said he will stand by his inquiry commission report "200 per cent."
"I don't have any words to describe our plight in the last nine years. My Ammi (mother) says if Islam allows suicide she would like to end her life," says Saeed Omerjee, son of Maulvi Omerjee, one of the main accused in the Godhra train burning case.
Justice Nanavati Commission on Tuesday submitted its final report on the 2002 Gujarat riots to state Chief Minister Anandiben Patel.
His son Rajesh got charred to death in the torched bogie and his daugher-in-law Chanda walked away with the compensation and two grand daughters, leaving her then six-year-old son Jatin in his grandfather's care.
Gordhan Zadaphia, who was the junior home minister of Gujarat in February 2002, when the Sabarmati Express was burnt down in Godhra leading to large-scale communal riots, told rediff.com that he will never become a witness before the Supreme Court constituted Special Investigation Team, which is probing the matter.
Three voices of victims who survived the Gulbarg Society and Naroda Patiya massacre pleading to and accusing the Gujarat chief minister of various criminal charges to appear before SIT.
The 74-year-old R K Shah speaks about why he quit as a special public prosecutor, the problems he faced in trying to get the accused convicted and whether there is eveidence against Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in the case.
Yakub Pataliya, 63, was arrested from Godhra by a team of B Division police in the town after they received a tip-off that he was spotted in a locality on Tuesday, the official said.
Where does one find a man who shows no bitterness or animosity towards Hindus, even after a frenzied Hindu mob burnt his house down?, Jyoti Punwani asks in this tribute to a truly extraordinary Indian.
The incident of burning S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002, which triggered off violent riots in Gujarat, was a pre-planned conspiracy and not an accident, according to the first part of the Godhra Commission report.
Over 50 people, mostly pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, were burnt alive in two bogies of Sabarmati Express in Godhra in February 2002.
By polarising the Hindu vote, the expose might help the BJP and Modi, but in the long run, it will dent Modi's credibility.
Zakia, the wife of Ehsan Jafri, an ex-MP who was killed in one of the worst incidents during the riots, has challenged the Gujarat high court's October 5, 2017, order rejecting her plea against the SIT's decision.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Gujarat government to constitute within 10 days a special investigation team to re-investigate 14 cases pertaining to the post-Godhra communal riots. A bench headed by Justice Arjit Pasayat said the SIT would submit its report in a sealed cover to the court in 3 months.
Possible chinks in the Gujarat government's "conspiracy theory" were on Tuesday pointed out to the Godhra inquiry commission, which is in the final stages of hearing events associated with the burning of the Sabarmati Express on February 27, 2002.
On September 24, 2002, two armed terrorists entered the Akshardham temple complex in Gandhinagar and opened fire on devotees, leaving 34 dead and injuring 84 others.
He told the court that he had met Kodnani at Sola Civil Hospital that morning.
DFS Assistant Director D B Talati refuted any such possibility when he was cross-examined by the inquiry panel probing the fire on the train and the post-Godhra communal riots of 2002.
The committee will be headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice U C Banerjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi after a Cabinet meeting.
The BJP alleges that the U C Banerjee Committee Report, which described the train fire as an accident, was made public with an eye on the polls.
Praveen Togadia has said that it metes out injustice.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that the party had been maintaining from day one that the fire, which killed 57 kar sewaks returning from Ayodhya, was not the handiwork of a particular community but an accident.
Dr Singh on Wednesday said Lalu would not be asked to resign "for now".
According to the sources, the three accused had admitted the accident was caused by their mistake and they had not informed the higher-ups about the non-functioning of the traffic signal system.
Superintendent of Police Anoop Singh Gehlot said his statement will be recorded later in the day.
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