Ahmedabad/New Delhi: In a damage-control
exercise, the Narendra Modi government has said that all
"crucial" intelligence bureau records relating to the 2002 riots were intact and available and only some of "temporary"
nature have been destroyed.
"The SIB records pertaining to communications that took
place during the 2002 riots have been classified as of
permanent nature and have not been destroyed and are
available," a home department official told PTI.
"These records are preserved permanently...there are
other records which are of temporary nature and are deemed to
be destroyed in one year, five years, 10 years or 30 years
time as per their classification," he said.
Only some of the records or data which were of temporary
nature or those classified to be destroyed after five or 10
years under the rules of the department have been destroyed,
he said.
In Delhi, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi
said, "This is a classic slip done slop then again a slip by
Gujarat Government which is doing somersault because it has
much to hide. A very senior counsel on behalf of the state
government said that records are destroyed in usual course."
Singhvi said no one explained how records could be
destroyed when more than five proceedings, including Supreme
Court proceedings, are going on.
Senior counsel S B Vakil, representing the state
government before Nanavati Commission which is probing the
2002 riots, had last month told reporters that telephone call
records, officers' movement registers and vehicle log books of
the State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) pertaining to the period
of 2002 riots were destroyed in 2007, as per government rules.
Asked about Vakil's submission, the home department
official said he seems to have been misquoted or
misinterpreted.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, July 03, 2011, 22:17