1 April 2002
Name of the complainant:Suo motu
Case No.:1150/6/2001-2002
Date:1 April 2002
Recommendations
21.The Commission now wishes to make a first set of Recommendations
for the immediate consideration
of the Central and State Governments.As indicated earlier, once a response
has been received from
these Governments on the report of the visit of the Commission's team
to Gujarat, and a full analysis
made of the numerous representations received by the Commission, additional
Proceedings will be
recorded by the Commission on the situation in Gujarat, offering further
Comments and
Recommendations.
Law & Order
(i)In
view of the widespread allegations that FIRs have been poorly or wrongly
recorded and that investigations are
being `influenced' by extraneous considerations or players, the Commission
is of the view that the integrity
of the process has to be restored.It therefore recommends the entrusting
of certain critical cases to the
CBI.These include the cases relating to the
·Godhra incident, which is at present being investigated by the
GRP;
·Chamanpura (Gulbarga Society) incident;
·Naroda Patiya incident;
·Best Bakery case in Vadodara; and the
·Sadarpura case in Mehsana district.
(ii)The Commission recommends that Special Courts should try these cases
on a
day-to-day basis, the Judges being handpicked by the Chief Justice of the
High
Court of Gujarat.Special Prosecutors should be appointed as needed.Procedures
should be adopted for the conduct of the proceedings in such a manner that
the
traumatized condition of many of the victims, particularly women and children,
is not
aggravated and they are protected from further trauma or threat.A particular
effort
should be made to depute sensitive officers, particularly officers who
are women, to
assist in the handling of such cases.
(iii)Special Cells should be constituted under the concerned District Magistrates
to follow the
progress of the investigation of cases not entrusted to the CBI; these
should be
monitored by the Additional Director-General (Crime).
(iv)Specific time-frames should be fixed for the thorough and expeditious
completion of
investigations.
(v)Police desks should be set-up in the relief camps to receive complaints,
record FIRs and
forward them to Police Stations having jurisdiction.
(vi)Material collected by NGOs such as Citizen's Initiative, PUCL and others
should also be
used.
(vii)Provocative statements made by persons to the electronic or print
media should be
examined and acted upon, and the burden of proof shifted to such persons
to explain
or contradict their statements.
(viii)Given the wide variation in the performance of public servants in
the discharge of their
statutory responsibilities, action should be initiated to identify and
proceed against
those who have failed to act appropriately to control the violence in its
incipient
stages, or to prevent its escalation thereafter.By the same token, officers
who have
performed their duties well, should be commended.
Police Reform
(i)The
Commission would like to draw attention to the deeper question of Police
Reform, on
which recommendations of the National Police Commission and of the National
Human Rights Commission have been pending despite repeated efforts to have
them
acted upon.The Commission is of the view that recent
events in Gujarat and, indeed,
in other States of the country, underline the need to proceed without delay
to
implement the reforms that have already been recommended in order to preserve
the
integrity of the investigating process and to insulate it from extraneous
influences.