Communal Riots-2012.pdf - Indian Social Institute

SIT conducted meticulous probe: Official (7)New Delhi: A senior member of the SIT, while expressing satisfaction on the sentencing in the infamousNaroda Patiya rioting case, said the SIT had come under severe criticism after Gujarat chief ministerNarendra Modi got a clean chit in another case. With this court order in which a former minister and asenior sitting MLA has been convicted, people will realise that SIT conducted meticulous investigations,he added. Maya Kodnani has been sentenced for 10 and 18 years respectively under different sections ofthe law and her 18 years sentence will come into effect only after she has spent the first 10 years in jail.The court described Maya Kodnani as the “kingpin of the entire riots” saying, “she led the mob and incitedthem for violence. She even abetted and supported the violent mob”. SIT sources told this newspaper thatapart from the statements of witnesses the technical evidence in terms of the cellphone locations of MayaKodnani and Babu Bajrangi were of “immense help” during the trial. “The technical evidence against thetwo was very strong as it confirmed their presence in the Naroda are when rioting was at its peak,” an SITofficial said. While coming down heavily on the issue of communal riots, Judge Jyotsna Yagnik describedthem as “cancer on constitutional secularism and the incidents that happened in Naroda Patiya are ablack chapter in the history of Indian Constitution”. “Acts of communal violence are brutal, inhuman andshameful. It (Naroda) was a clear incident of human rights violation as 97 people were killed brutallywithin a day which included helpless women, children, aged persons. The climax of this inhuman andbrutal act of violence was reflected in murder of an infant, who was 20-day old,” the order states. In animportant observation, the court noted that the Naroda violence was a pre-planned strategy and trashedthe defence argument that it was in fact a fallout of the Godhra train burning incident. The court said noone can be allowed to take law in their holds as India is country which upholds the rule of law. The courtalso directed the Gujarat government to pay a compensation of `5 lakhs to a victim of gang rape thoughnobody could be charged with this heinous crime in absence of any concrete evidence. (Asian Age1/9/12)Six killed during protest against desecration of holy book in Ghaziabad (7)LUCKNOW: Curfew was imposed in Dasna area of Ghaziabad after six people were killed and 12 injured,including two critically, in violence and arson during a protest against alleged desecration of the Quran.This is the sixth incident of communal violence in six months rule of Samajwadi Party so far. The UttarPradesh (UP) government has ordered an inquiry into the incident and announced a compensation of Rs5 lakh each to the kin of those killed, Rs 50,000 each to those seriously injured and Rs 25,000 to thosehaving minor injuries. The protest was triggered after torn pages from a holy book were found atAdhyatmik Nagar station platform late on Friday night. Irate mob set a police station afire. The incidentoccurred after police allegedly ignored their complaint instead of taking action. "A member of ourcommunity saw pages of the holy Quran on which objectionable words were written along with a mobilenumber. He showed the pages to senior community members in the town, who took the pages to thepolice station," said Ayub, a local advocate. "Instead of taking action, the police ignored the complaint," headded. Following which an angry mob set the Masuri police station on fire. Four police vehicles, six busesand some other vehicles were also damaged in the incident. As the situation remained tense, prohibitoryorders continued to be in place in Masuri police station area on Saturday and a large number of personnelfrom Rapid Action Force and Provincial Armed Constabulary were deployed. Police registered a caseagainst unidentified people in connection with the desecration of the holy book. A senior police officialsaid they were in the process of identifying the rioters and once they are identified, case will be registeredagainst them. Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav termed the incident as unfortunate and has said that sternaction will be taken against guilty officers. On the direction of the chief minister, divisional commissioner,Meerut has been asked to conduct an inquiry. Ghaziabad district magistrate Aparna Upadhyay and seniorsuperintendent of police Prashant Kumar told reporters that six persons were killed in the violence. A subinspectorand a head constable suffered serious injuries and are in critical condition. Asked whetherprotesters died in police firing, officials said it was a matter of investigation and they were awaiting postmortemreport to ascertain the cause of deaths. Earlier, communal violence and tension were reportedfrom Bareilly, Pratapgarh and Mathura. In Bareilly and Pratapgarh two incidents of communal violencetook place within last six months. While four people were killed on June 1 during clash in Kosi Kalan inMathura, around 40 houses were set afire on June 23 in Pratapgarh's Asthan village following gang rapeand murder of a minor dalit girl. Communal violence in Barielly on July 23 and August 11 had left threedead. (Times of India 15/9/12)Kandhamal riots probe panel likely to seek extension (7)Berhampur: The Justice Basudev Panigrahi commission inquiring into the 2007 communal riots inKandhamal district is likely to seek more time to submit its final report. "I will examine around 100 more