Ahmedabad: Rs 6.32 crore have been spent on Nanavati Commission, which is probing the 2002 Gujarat riots, from its inception in March 2002 till October this year.
The Commission gave the information in reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act filed by social activist Vinod Pandya in August this year.
Pandya, in his application, had sought information on the year-wise expenditure of the Commission, from its inception.
He had also sought information on the payments made to public prosecutors who had assisted the Commission from time to time.
As per the reply given by the public information officer and secretary to Commission CG Patel, the total expenditure of the Commissioner from March 2002 to October 2011 was Rs 6,32,18,000.
The expenditure includes salary of judges appointed in the Commission, other administrative staff, fees to lawyers, stationary and other miscellaneous expenses, Patel said.
Out of this expenditure, Rs 28,00,900 was paid as fees to the public prosecutor, Rs 4,53,54,700 was paid as salary to the judges and other support staff and Rs 1,50,62,000 were miscellaneous expenses during the nine-and-half year period.
The public prosecutor who received the highest fees was advocate Arvind Pandya, who was paid Rs 14.23 lakh.
Advocate Sunit Shah received Rs 5.68 lakh followed by TS Nanavati (Rs 5.52 lakh), JM Panchal (Rs 3.70 lakh), Bharat Dave (Rs 68,900), SG Thakur (Rs 64,100), AP Parekh (Rs 62,750), Rajnikant Pathak (Rs 60,950), Nigam Shukla (Rs 56,404) and Manubhai Shah (Rs 4,500).
The government in June this year had extended the term of the Commission, comprising of retd Justices G T Nanavati and Akshay Mehta, for the 16th time till December 31, 2011.
The Commission has already probed 4,145 riot cases which occurred between February 27, 2002 and May 31, 2002.
The riot panel had in 2008 submitted one part of its finding with regard to the Godhra train burning incident in which it had concluded that the burning of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station was a pre-planned conspiracy.
The Commission was appointed by the state government on March 3, 2002, under the Commission of Inquiry Act, after communal riots in the state following the Godhra train burning incident on February 27, 2002.
Initially, the terms of reference (TOR) of the Commission was to inquire into facts, circumstances and course of events that led to burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near Godhra railway station.
The TOR was further amended in June 2002 and the Commission was also asked to inquire the incidents of violence that took place after the Godhra train burning incident.
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