Maria gets the list of lapses by Special Task Force

Once again, the ball is in the court of the Mumbai Police.

On Friday, Rakesh Maria, joint comissioner of police (crime), sought a list of the alleged lapses by the Special Task Force in implementing the Srikrishna Commission report, which the general secretary of the Action Committee for the Implementation of Srikrishna Commission Report Naseem Khan, which he promptly furnished.

In fact, what Naseem Khan has furnished is the list of the 18 cases in which STF did not take any action, 79 cases in which action taken was allegedly inadequate and 12 cases in which political leaders were involved but no action was taken.

Talking to DNA, Naseem Khan said, “The list was prepared on the Supreme Court’s direction after the state filed an affidavit that it has completely implemented the commission’s report, which we had contested.

SC had asked us (the petitioner) to mention commission’s recommendations, state’s claim of implementation and lapses in the claim. The same report, in a tabular format, has been given to the Mumbai Police as well.”

The commission’s report indcited several leaders, including Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, ex-Lok Sabha leader Manohar Joshi, ex-MLA Madhukar Sarpotdar, former minister of state for home Gajanan Kirtikar, host of Sena vibhag pramukhs, shakha pramukhs and corporators and recommended action against them. But there are 12 specific cases in which action was recommended by the commission.

In 1998, the then CM Manohar Joshi was ‘ordered’ by the Bombay High Court to accept the commission’s report, which his government declined; and also to table action taken report on the same. However, he simply rejected the report claiming that it was biased.

In 1999 assembly polls, Congress and NCP, which later formed a coalition DF government, had promised in their manifestoes that they would implement the report ‘in-toto”. However, the promise was never fulfilled.

Meanwhile, when a petition filed by the action committee, of which Khan is a general secretary, came up for hearing, state government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the STF, especially formed for this, has implemented the report completely.