Orissa riot probe needs two more years’

(April 06, 2010) India’s commission probing the 2008 anti-Christian riots in eastern India’s Orissa State, says it needs two more years to complete the task, as political parties, religious groups and the media have almost ignored it.
The Government set up the one-man Justice Sarat Chandra Mohapatra commission to inquire into the violence that followed the murder of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader on Aug 23, 2008. Its six month tenure was twice extended but could not make any headway, Justice Mohapatra said in an interview published in the Times of India. He said he had issued letters to all major political parties, but most of them have not filed their statements before the commission yet.
Some 90 people, mostly Christians were killed in the seven week-long violence that also displaced thousands of Christians from their homes. The commission issued about 60 notices to media organisations, political leaders and tribal and Christian organizations, but the response was tepid. Justice Mohapatra said among the few who responded, include Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, a tribal group and a Hindu rightwing organization Hindu Jagaran Manch.
Mohapatra, a former Orissa high court judge, was appointed in October 2008 to probe the murders and the subsequent violence. His extended tenure of the investigation ends this year on September 17th.