30 August 1999
Press Trust of India
New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) on Monday alleged that the Wadhwa Commission, which probed the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa, had failed to uncover the truth and produced a politically-biased report.
“The commission failed in both inspiring the confidence of minorities in India and in uncovering the truth about the killings of Graham, Timothy and Philip Staines”, SAHRDC said in a report titled “Report of Justice D P Wadhwa commission of Inquiry: Judicial Commission or Injudicious Cover Up?”
It alleged that the commission had produced a report that was extremely selective and political in manner.
“The selectivity and political bias of the commission is disclosed most starkly through an examination of the written submissions on behalf of counsel for the commission”, said the report which was released here.
It said even if there is no evidence that Dara singh was acting on behalf of Bajrang Dal or the BJP on the night of January 22, 1999, there is “certainly an abundance of evidence that he was deeply involved in these organisations.”
Complicity of these organisations could not be disproved by the commission as a number of witnesses noted that the involvement of ‘Sangh Parivar’ (pro-Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) outfits cannot be confirmed or ruled out until Dara Singh is in custody and a full investigation is conducted.
However, Justice Wadhwa did not consider it necessary to wait for such evidence, it said.