Nanavati-Mehta Commission
It was later re-constituted to include G. T. Nanavati, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India, after protests from human rights organizations over Shah's closeness to then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Akshay H. Mehta, retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, replaced Shah when the latter died before the submission of the commission's interim report.
[6][7] The train was set on fire by a Muslim mob[8][9][10][11] (Nanavati-Mehta Commission concluded that the burning of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station was a "planned conspiracy.
[17][18] However, Shah's alleged closeness to Narendra Modi provoked outrage from the families of the victims as well as from Human Rights organisations, and resulted in call for a more independent head for the commission.
[24] Initially, the Terms of Reference of the commission were to inquire into the facts, circumstances and course of events that led to the burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express.
[18][27] In September 2008, the Commission submitted its 168-paged Part I of the report, dealing with the Godhra train burning incident, which was tabled before the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.
It further gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, saying there was no evidence to show that he or anybody in his Government was involved with incident.
As per the commission, the conspiracy was hatched by some local Muslims at the Aman guest house in Godhra the previous night and the conspirators immediately made arrangements for collecting about 140 litres of petrol from a nearby pump on the night of 26 February 2002, the next day when the train arrived in Godhra, Hasan Lala, after forcibly opening the vestibule between coaches S-6 and S-7, entered S-6 and threw burning rags setting it on fire.
[29] A dismissed Central Reserve Police Force officer named Nanumiyan, and Maulvi Husain Haji Ibrahim Umarji, a cleric in the town of Godhra, were presented as the masterminds behind the operation.
But it concluded that there was no reliable evidence to show that any attempt was made by the kar sevaks to abduct Sofiabanu, Salim Panwala to spread a false rumor to that effect to collect a mob that started pelting stones on the passengers.
[18][29] According to the report, setting fire to the train was part of a larger conspiracy to instill a sense of fear in the administration and create anarchy in the state.
"[36] The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Indian National Congress both objected to the exoneration of the Gujarat government by the commission, citing the timing of the report (with the general elections months away) as evidence of unfairness.
Congress spokesperson Veerappa Moily commented at the strange absolvement of the Gujarat government for complacency for the carnage before the commission's second and final report had been brought out.
[37][38] The commission has come in for heavy criticism from academics such as Christophe Jaffrelot for obstructing the course of justice, supporting the conspiracy theory too quickly, and for allegedly ignoring evidence of governmental complicity in the incident.
