Charging the Maharastra government with not taking any 'significant step' to implement recommendations of the Srikrishna Commission on the 1992 Mumbai riots, Amnesty International on Thursday said this was an essential failing which would send a wrong signal to the perpetrators of the violence in Gujarat.
"More than four years after the publication of the commission's report in 1998, no significant steps have been taken by the Maharashtra government to implement its recommendations," the global human rights organisation said.
"Ten years of impunity for those responsible for the Mumbai riots send a deeply disturbing message to the nation and shatters public confidence in justice," Amnesty said.
It said authorities' inaction in Maharashtra was 'especially disheartening' for the victims of the communal violence in Gujarat who are presently seeking justice.
"Mumbai sends the message to Gujarat that even when those responsible are identified they are allowed to go unpunished."
"The Government of Maharashtra must urgently take all necessary steps to restore credibility in the justice system and thus send a powerful signal to those seeking justice in Gujarat," the organisation said.
Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 widespread riots hit Mumbai leaving at least 1,788 people dead.
Soon after the riots, the Srikrishna Commission of Enquiry was set up to identify causes and those responsible for the violence. It submitted its report in 1998.
"How much longer will the victims have to wait until justice is done for the massacres in Mumbai in 1992," Amnesty asked.
"Whereas the previous Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government tried to disband the commission itself in 1996, the present Congress-led government has simply buried the report," it said.
Amnesty said the recommendations of the commission should be fully implemented so that the conditions, which allowed the riots to take place, could be eradicated and similar abuses prevented from happening again.
The commission also called for action against 31 policemen allegedly responsible for killing innocent people, acting in a communal manner, being negligent or themselves rioting.
Seventeen of these cops were formally charged in mid-2001, but none of them has been tried or convicted as yet.
