Friday, October 14 2005 15:33 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ahmedabad: The Centre today (Oct 14, 2005) refused to divulge the contents of the letters between former President K R Narayanan and the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Godhra Commission in connection with the post-Godhra riots of 2002.

In a letter written to the two-member Nanavati-Shah Commission, probing the Sabarmati train carnage and its aftermath, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government refused to send the letters to the Commission saying it was part of the official communication between the former President and the then Prime Minister.

The contents of the letters cannot be made public property, the letter stated.

According to advocate S K Sinha, who is representing a section of the families affected in the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002, the letter also sought privilege under Section 123 and 124 of the CrPC.

The letter was handed over to the Commission by the Under Secretary to the Union Government Jugal Kishore.

Sinha felt that the letters where Narayanan had written to Vajpayee contained crucial details about troop deployment in Gujarat where communal riots had broken out in 2002.

The Commission had time and again requested Rashtrapati Bhavan to send copies of the letters to the Commission, but the President's office had citied 'privilege' and refused to part with the concerned documents.

During the last hearing, Rashtrapati Bhavan sought two weeks time to send a response to the Commission regarding the letters and said that it was consulting the Union Government in this regard.