The Gujarat High Court Thursday barred police from taking any action against those accused of exhuming bodies, allegedly of their relatives who were communal violence victims, from a mass grave.Acting on a plea by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), Justice A.S. Dave directed that "no action can be taken by the Gujarat police on the investigation" till the next hearing in the matter took place April 28.
This would bar police from arresting the six accused, relatives of the violence victims, against whom non-bailable warrants were issued Tuesday by the judicial magistrate in Lunawada in the Panchmahals district.
The court also asked the state government to clarify its stance on the issue of transfer of the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI is involved in the case at the court's directive to identify the exhumed bodies by DNA testing.
While the discovery of the mass grave at Lunawada, 140 km from here, on Dec 27 led to activists accusing the state government of hiding the truth about violence victims, police had charged five relatives and Raees Khan, a social activist, of "tempering with the evidence".
According to official documents, 21 people were killed near Pandarwada March 1, 2002, a day after a train bogey was set on fire in nearby Godhra - an event that sparked statewide communal clashes leading to at least 1,000 deaths.
Meanwhile, human rights activist Teesta Setalvad of the Mumbai-based CJP accused the state's police of playing a "misleading" resulting in issuance of warrants against five violence survivors and Khan.
Setalvad also accused police of using "intimidatory tactics to browbeat victims of a massacre and representatives of organisations supporting the struggle for justice.
"Situation in Gujarat hasn't changed since 2002. Even now you can't fight for justice," she said.
(IANS)
