No annexure of Vohra panel in records: MHA

New Delhi, November 12

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Where are the crucial records related to the 1993 NN Vohra committee report, constituted to probe links among organised criminals, mafia and politicians?

According to former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi, an RTI application filed by him seeking information on this has kept changing hands in various departments of the Union Home Ministry for the last two years, with every department telling him that data is not held by them.

Gandhi has sought a copy of the committee report along with all the annexures and note sheets.

The CIC had directed the internal security wing of the ministry to gather information from the department where the application has been held and provide it to Gandhi.

But even after the direction, the department, where it has been transferred to, has responded that it only has the report but no annexures or note sheets.

The committee, constituted in the aftermath of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, was chaired by the then home secretary NN Vohra, who is currently Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

With members from the RAW, the Intelligence Bureau and the CBI, it was tasked with taking stock of all available information about the activities of the crime syndicates/mafia organisations which had developed links with, and were being protected by government functionaries and political personalities.

The committee had submitted its report in October 1993. Information Commissioner Sudhir Bhargava said the officer instead of transferring the RTI application to another desk of the MHA should have sought assistance of any other officer in the ministry, under Section 5(4) of the RTI Act, for the proper discharge of his duties.

“The commission, therefore, directs Mukesh Mangal, Director (IS-1), MHA, to obtain information and furnish it to the appellant within four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order,” he said.

After the order, the internal security department claimed having found a 13-page report but the annexures and other details as sought by Gandhi were not in its records. — PTI