New Delhi: A CBI team from Chennai, led by officer Venkateshwer Rao, has inspected the mass grave site at Lunawada, near Godhra, unearthed by relatives of the victims on Tuesday.
A CBI team from Mumbai will also arrive in Lunawada later today. The team will probe if the skeletal remains in mass grave are related to the Bilkis Bano case.
A six-month pregnant Bilkis was gang-raped and 11 family members were burnt alive during the 2002 riots.
Panchmahal District Magistrate Dinesh Brahma Bhatt and Superintendent of Police J K Bhatt have arrived to the mass grave site.
A team of forensic experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) have also reached Lunawada to collect samples from the skeletal remains for DNA testing.
On Wednesday, social activist Teesta Setalvad filed an affidavit in the state High Court seeking CBI investigation into the matter.
The High Court has admitted her plea and will begin the hearing into the matter from Thursday.
Teesta has moved the court along with relatives of the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots, who believe that the skeletal remains exhumed are of those killed in the riots.
"It's a shocking thing that the families had to do the digging. They've been after the authorities. They hear that the bodies might be hear or there. Four times we went to wrong places, fifth time we came here. Isn't it shocking?" says Setalvad.
In the morning, Gujarat police completed the panchnama at the grave site and have started exhuming the skeletal remains from the site.
A panchnama is a record of the scene as it existed when the police first arrived at the spot.
Meanwhile, at the BJP National Executive in Mumbai, outgoing BJP President L K Advani praised the governance in Gujarat and said that the Modi administration had done a good job.
Reacting to the CNN-IBN report, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent notices to the state government asking for a status report. The state authorities now have two weeks to file a reply.
The Central Government has, meanwhile, assured it will direct the CBI to invesitgate the latest findings.
Back in Gujarat, the state police maintain that according to Criminal Procedure Code, exhuming bodies without permission from the local administration is a crime.
For almost four years, the Gujarat riots has been at the heart of a legal debate.
The latest findings only strengthen the view that much more needs to be done if justice is to be provided to the riot victims.
Comments
0 comment