Eleven months after the Gujarat government withdrew anti-terrorist law provisions against Godhra carnage suspects, it has again invoked them against all 122 accused in the case.All of them have been booked under Section 3 (1) of the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA), besides provisions of criminal law. Among the accused is Maulana Hasan Umarji, a cleric from the town who was recently implicated in the case after a suspect’s confession, and 47 others who have been declared absconders.The decision to invoke POTA was on the basis of the confession of Zabir Behra. Last fortnight, he had confessed before a magistrate that a conspiracy to attack the train and set the carriage of Ramsevaks on fire was hatched at the house of the maulana.Behra had said that the maulana got together a core group to attack the carriage, making them swear upon the Quran that they would not balk. On Monday, Behra said the conspiracy was hatched four days before the attack.‘‘It is on the basis of this confession we found it fit to invoke POTA provisions again,’’ said Minister of State for Home Amit Shah on Wednesday. ‘‘The decision was taken last evening.’’Asked if it was not unusual that after once withdrawing them, POTA provisions were being invoked again, Additional DGP A.K. Bhargav said: ‘‘With new facts turning up, we have all the ingredients required for making it a fit case for POTA.’’The ‘‘ingredients’’ are: a) intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security, or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any section of the people by using bombs, dynamite, or other explosive substances or inflammable substances or firearms or other lethal weapons or poisons, noxious gases, or other chemicals or by any other substance (whether biological or otherwise) of a hazardous nature or by any other means whatsoever; b) intention to spread terror; c) use of inflammable material; d) intention to cause death; e) deliberate attempts to disrupt essential services.Asked whether POTA was not invoked to forestall the possibility of accused obtaining bail, Bhargav said: ‘‘That was there at the back of our minds but it was not the reason.’’ Today, investigators raided the maulana’s house and said they had recovered several documents allegedly related to payments made to those who took part in the train attack. The maulana’s office, from which he conducts relief work, was also raided. Investigators are also trying to track down the sources of Umarji’s funds.
