The state government has opposed the demand of Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM) to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi, some of his colleagues in the ministry and staff members of the Chief Minister’s Office to examine their role and conduct in the 2002 riots before the Nanavati–Mehta Commission.

Calling many of the grounds on which JSM has moved the application ‘factually incorrect’, government’s counsel T S Nanavati has stated that the application deserves to be dismissed.

In a significant development, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi had appeared before the Commission to represent the government’s stand on the application along with Nanavati.

The government counsel submitted a detailed point-wise reply to the application of the JSM, which has demanded to summon the CM and others on the basis of the enlarged scope of the Nanavati-Mehta Commission. The government has called the application an attempt to sensationalise the public opinion by insisting upon summoning Modi and other functionaries of the government for cross-examination.

The JSM has demanded to summon them on points like the CM’s visit to Godhra following the carnage case, postmortem of those killed in the Godhra train carnage, CM’s meeting with senior officers of the government, handing over the bodies of the Godhra carnage victims to the then VHP general secretary, Jaydeep Patel and cellular conversations between some of the riot accused, the then home minister and some senior police officers of riot-affected areas.

The government, in its reply, has questioned the authenticity of the CDs containing cellular phone data submitted by IPS officer Rahul Sharma.

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