New Delhi: The UC Banerjee Committee report on the cause of the fire that engulfed the S 6 coach of the Sabarmati Express and killed 58 Kar Sewaks has said that the fire was an accident and not an act of terror.
The report could also be politically explosive as the principal opposition party, the Bharatiya Janta Party, has all along maintained that the coach was set on fire by a mob from the outside.
On the other hand Congress and its allies have been saying that the fire was accidental and not the handiwork of any particular community.
The report also says that the S 6 coach of the train was not locked from outside because in India train coaches cannot be locked from the outside.
It also states that though 58 passengers had died most of the others managed to escape.
"Gujarat Police constables said there was no mob," UC Banerjee said.
Following the report Congress called for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to resign from his post.
"The report has once again exposed Mr Modi as a particular community was targetted and violence unleashed in his regime under the pretext that the fire in the Sabarmati Express was ignited by members of that community," Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told mediapersons in New Delhi.
The BJP has always maintained that post Godhra riots happened because Karsevaks were burnt inside the train and that is why the party was quick to dismiss the report.
BJP spokesperson Arun Jaitley called the report politically motivated.
"There are political motivations behind the Banerjee report (which held that the fire on the train in which about 59 karsevaks were killed was accidental)," BJP President Rajnath Singh said at Ahmedabad.
"Such Ministers who were instrumental in forming the Committee should be punished," he remarked taking a dig at Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, who had ordered the formation of the Committee to probe into the causes of the fire on the train.
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"When Bihar elections were announced, Justice Banerjee came out with an interim report on the incident and now when five states are going in for assembly elections, the final report of the Committee has been published," he said.
"`When one judicial commission has been constituted to probe the incident (train carnage of February 27, 2002), then there is no legal provision to consititue another body to inquire into the same matter, Rajnath said.
He said that it was not Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who had "recommended" Justice Nanavati, but it was the Supreme Court which had suggested the Nanavati's ame, who is currently the chairman of the Nanavati-Shah Commission probing the Godhra train carnage and its aftermath.
The findings of the Banerjee report is in complete contradiction to the preliminary report filed by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) regarding the incident, Rajnath said.
The Nanavati-Shah Commission probing the same incident and the riots that followed will resume its hearing on Saturday.
Also probing the Godhra train burning and the Gujarat riots that followed it is the Nanavati-Shah Commission which was set up during the NDA regime.
That committee is yet to submit its finding and Justice Banerjee says he has not in any way pre-empted that commission.
This report is likely to help the UPA, which is already under fire from an aggressive Opposition over Volker and Bofors.
The irony, however, is that ultimately the recommendation of Banerjee committee would not do anything to find out the truth.
With sharp political divisions emerging on the report its fate could be the same as the committees that probes riots in the past.
(With inputs from PTI)
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