| Kishtwar Communal Riots: CoI fails to submit report, exhausts 6 deadlines | | | Asif Iqbal Naik
JAMMU, Feb 28: Government has admitted that the one-man Commission of Inquiry (CoI) appointed by it to probe into August 9 Kishtwar communal riots has failed to submit its report in stipulated time frame.
In reply to a question of Congress MLA from Inderwal constituency, Ghulam Mohammad Saroori, who was seeking the status of Commission of Inquiry and payment of compensation paid to the victims, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah through written reply in Legislative Assembly admitted that after the laps of more than six months the Commission of Justice (retd) RC Gandhi failed to submit the final report and missed another deadline of February 22.
"The Commission of Inquiry constituted on August 23, 2013 to enquire into the incidents of violence and arson that took place on August 9, 2013 in Kishtwar has submitted only an interim report on December, 2013 and the date of submission of the final report has been extended upto February 22," the written reply reads. In another part, Chief Minister confirmed that government has not received the final report and was considering the interim finding received by the commission. However in the reply it was mentioned that an amount of Rs 1, 84,11,563/- has already been sanctioned and disbursed among 75 affected families 45 relief cases are under process for payments.
Pertinently, state government constituted one man Commission of Inquiry to probe into the circumstances that led to large scale rioting in Kishtwar and asked it to submit report within one month. Later the government appointed Qazi Sarwar, Additional Secretary to Government, Housing and Urban Development Department, as Secretary of the Commission, retired SSP, Reasi, Raghubir Singh and senior prostituting officer, Udhampur, P P Singh to assist CoI.
After taking four months and recording the statements of officials including then Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar and Superintendent of Police besides recording statements of more than 350 locals of Kishtwar and Padder, the Commission had submitted its interim report on December 20, 2013 and given clean chit to Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo, who had resigned from the ministry in wake of his allegations of his involvement in riots by the opposition. A day after receiving the interim report by CoI, Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo was re-inducted as a minister in state government on same portfolios. |
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