Riots case: petition challenges in-camera questioning

The Jan Sangharsh Manch, which represents the 2002 Gujarat riot victims before the G.T. Nanavati-Akshay Mehta judicial inquiry commission, on Thursday filed a petition in the Gujarat High Court challenging the commission's move to summon the then Minister of State for Home, Gordhan Jhadaphia, for in-camera questioning.

The plea by Mukul Sinha, advocate for the Manch, will come up for hearing on October 19 along with the pending original petition, in which it sought a direction to the commission that Chief Minister Narendra Modi and six others, including Mr. Jhadaphia, be summoned for cross-examination.

Plea rejected

Meanwhile, the High Court rejected a petition filed by some witnesses in the Gulberg Society massacre case seeking to join some government employees and officials as witnesses and to cross-examine them.

Imtiyazkhan Pathan and others moved the court on the ground that the former Congress member of the Lok Sabha, Ehsan Jaffrey, who was among those killed in the Gulberg Society massacre, had appealed to some top officials and highly-placed persons for help before the frenzied mob attacked minority community members.