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Forensic expert in Gujarat riots case, SC lawyer among 6 who handed Shah Delhi riots report

The group from NGO Call for Justice met Home Minister Amit Shah last week, and blamed the 'Tukde-Tukde Gang’ Pinjra Tod, Jamia Coordination Committee and PFI for the riots.

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New Delhi: A leading forensic pathologist — who has assisted the CBI in high-profile cases such as the Gujarat riots and the Ishrat Jahan encounter — and a ‘public prosecutor for the National Investigation Agency (NIA)’ were among the six-member group that presented a fact-finding report, on the Delhi riots, to Union Home Minister Amit Shah last Friday. 

The members, part of the NGO ‘Call for Justice’, blamed the “Tukde-Tukde Gang”, and “radical groups such as Pinjra Tod, Jamia Coordination Committee, Popular Front of India (PFI), and the local politicians from AAP” for the violence that killed 53 people in the national capital in February. 

Other members of the fact-finding team included a group of retired civil service officials and a retired high court judge. The team is the first to secure an audience with Amit Shah though there have been other fact-finding reports on the riots — by civil rights groups, lawyers and even the Congress party.   

The only other fact-finding group that the home ministry has acknowledged with regard to the riots is a Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA) led by RSS ideologue and lawyer Monika Arora. The group had met with junior Home Minister G. Kishen Reddy in March to present a report titled ‘The Shaheen Bagh Model in North-East Delhi: From Dharna to Danga’. 

“We have ways,” said Chandra Wadhwa, the trustee of the Call for Justice group on how its team was able to secure an appointment with Shah. “When you are a group of such reputed individuals, you have contacts. So it wasn’t that difficult to meet him.” 

The team claims it conducted its field work in the affected areas of Northeast Delhi from 29 February to 1 March — about a week after the deadly riots. 

Wadhwa said they were ready with the report back in March itself, but the meeting kept getting postponed due to the lockdown. A picture of some members of the group presenting the report to Shah went viral last week, after some pointed out that the home minister wasn’t wearing his mask properly.  


Also read: Police didn’t inform Delhi riots accused of serious charges, violated procedure: Lawyers


The forensic expert and an ‘NIA prosecutor’

One of the primary members of the six-member fact-finding group was Dr Tirath Das Dogra, a former AIIMS director and a leading Indian forensic pathologist. 

In a career spanning over four decades, Dogra has assisted the CBI and the Delhi Police in almost all the high profile cases — from Indira Gandhi’s assassination, the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, the Batla House encounter as well as the Aarushi Talwar murder.

“I didn’t see them as high-profile cases. A prime minister dying or a beggar dying — it’s all the same for me, they are my patients,” Dogra told ThePrint.

The report accuses the AAP, Congress and Left parties as being responsible for hate speech and misinformation in the build-up to the riots. Dogra said he stands by everything written in the report. 

“It may be surprising to people that I associated myself with the report, but I went to the field and we wrote what we saw. For me, there is nothing politically charged or communally charged in the report,” he said. 

It isn’t just Dogra, another member of the fact-finding team has also worked closely with state agencies. 

Neeraj Arora, Supreme Court advocate has worked on cyber law and cyber crime with the National Police Academy and the CBI Academy. His website claims he also acts as a special public prosecutor with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi. 

“I am primarily a computer forensic expert. So I can scan through the entirety of the internet to connect the dots of a crime,” Arora told ThePrint. 

One of the demands of the fact-finding team is to have the riots investigated by the NIA. “Considering involvement of PFI, ISI & other inter-state and international groups, investigation must be done at NIA level,” the report mentions.


Also read: Amid tensions at LAC, Amit Shah brings up China role in Covid outbreak


Report relies on website OpIndia

Arora said all the claims made by the fact-finding report are based on “authentic news sources that can be corroborated.” The most-cited news website in the fact-finding report is OpIndia, which has been cited 20 times in the 70-page long report. 

The report, further, claimed that the riots were meticulously planned attacks. 

“The Hindu community was totally unaware about the attacks while the attackers belonging to the Muslim community meticulously planned not only the manpower and other resources but also the timing as well as the pre-defined targets,” it claims.  

A third important member of the team is Neera Mishra who runs an organisation called the Draupadi Trust. The trust works on “vedic principles and philosophy” to create a “better understanding of ancient Indian culture”. 

The trust’s website shows an endorsement by PM Narendra Modi from back in 2013, as well as from Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, and former president Pratibha Patil. 

In 2016, controversial BJP leader Subramanian Swamy inaugurated an exhibition held by Neera while Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat attended one such exhibition in 2018. In July 2019, Neera presented her book Maharabharata Manthan to President Ram Nath Kovind while she held personal meetings with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in March 2019. 

Other members of the fact-finding team include retired Justice Ambadas Joshi, retired IPS officer Vivek Dubey and retired IAS officer M.L. Meena. 

While Joshi is a former judge of the Bombay High Court, he had served as the chairman of the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal under the BJP-led government in the state from 2014 to 2019. Dubey had served as a special central police observer in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.


Also read: After long silence, Kanhaiya speaks up on student arrests: ‘Lesson to those who raise voice’


 

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15 COMMENTS

  1. excellent. amit shah is doing very well. whole country now waiting for yogi adityanath to come in centre and trinity of modi yogi & amit to crush terrorists and violent anarchists.

  2. Amit Shah will never stop at fudging reports and changing whatever he can for greed of power,, a sly snake who has only vengeance on his mind….

    Hope this is best reply ✊👍 it’s shameless racist and fascist Gov …. Anti -Muslim and Anti-Secular ppl. Such silly racial supremacist ppl have to separate from Secular India & they have to make hindutva cow urine & Cow dung republic as they are seeing & feeling to have hindutva Republic like muslims countries. 56 inches Gays not even man …say if we at least consider man if Modi handle one wife with 8 children like normal muslim

  3. The country is running on opium and so its politicians and institutions. Let’s see how far it can go like this. Power, greed and the power of greed have made this country hollow, deeply hollowed, inside, where every piece of shit is treated like gold.

  4. This is clear that this type of report your presenting with individual all take you to hell fire, I think the expert are dead people in front of Government or ruling power,
    Shame you Truth hider, Your injustice will be snatch by Superme Almighty and you will be punished

  5. This is clear that this type of report your presenting with individual all take you to hell fire, I think the expert are dead people in front of Government or ruling power,
    Shame you Truth hider, Your injustice will be snatch by Superme Almighty and you will be punished

  6. Now this issues is brought to air to divert peoples attention for the on going crisis of migrant workers.
    To distract minds from real things

  7. Why is the BJP, Rajya Sabha MP, Mr Subramaniam Swamy being called a “controversial” in this article ? Will the author explian the reason for calling him so. If he is controversial then Sonia and Rahul are corrupt and communal, Rajiv was the killer of Sikhs…the list can be too long. Even many mediamen can be called corrupt, anti nationals and communal. Please use your words with care. Your articles are too much biased, always loaded in favour and congress and against BJP

  8. Amit Shah jee IAS Rani Nagar case ka kya huva aap HM hone ke naate aapki kya jimmedari hai kyoki aap desh ke HM ho TATKAL karyavahi kar sunil Gulatee jee ko jail me dalkar janch shuru karvaye aur Khattar CM Sahabse feedback lijeeye Dhanyavad

  9. AShah will never stop at fudging reports and changing whatever he can for greed of power,, a sly snake who has only vengeance on his mind

  10. The investigating team is well honoured in the society but they are trying to prove the claping of riots with one hand.the main querry with such high profile respected personilties are they are pro govt.as they point out all National and international agencies responsible for riots like Godhra 2002,Ishrat jaha encounter, Delhi riots but they dont admit the failure of govt. agencies like IB, CBI, CID, local police and local bodies or NGO or even RSS or Political parties like congress BJP BSP SP etc who contested in election failed to come out to control the situation.so all were in the audience gallery when Delhi or godhra was burning and citizens on either side were suffering a lot. and India as a secular country was blamed by certain limited forces.

  11. So a credible impartial committee has confirmed what everyone had known – criminals from Tukde-Tukde Gang, Pinjra Tod, Jamia Coordination Committee, Popular Front of India (PFI), and some AAP politicians instigated and created the riots.
    Why does The Print have a problem with the truth?

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