The Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Friday told a special court the agency had not found any evidence to support the charge of dereliction of duty against PC Pande, who was police commissioner, Ahmedabad, during the 2002 riots.The SIT made this submission in a special court hearing the Gulberg Society massacre case. In 2002, the Gulberg housing society in Ahmedabad was attacked by a mob, which killed 69 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.
Some of the victims of the Gulberg society riots had filed an application in the court earlier this month. They had stated that Pande and other police officers had failed to provide additional police force when the society was under siege.
Appearing for the SIT, public prosecutor RC Kodekar told the court that during the course of investigation, the team did not come across any evidence to suggest dereliction of duty on the part of the other concerned officials — MK Tandon, who is now retired, the joint police commissioner then and PB Gondia, the deputy commissioner zone IV in the city.
{{/usCountry}}Appearing for the SIT, public prosecutor RC Kodekar told the court that during the course of investigation, the team did not come across any evidence to suggest dereliction of duty on the part of the other concerned officials — MK Tandon, who is now retired, the joint police commissioner then and PB Gondia, the deputy commissioner zone IV in the city.
{{/usCountry}}Kodekar said over 300 witnesses were examined during the trial.
HC rejects Teesta plea on quashing FIR
Justice GB Shah of the Gujarat high court on Friday rejected a plea to quash an FIR registered against Mumbai-based social activist Teesta Setalvad and others in connection with exhumation of bodies of riot victims from a mass grave near Godhra four years after the state authorities buried them.
Setalvad, general secretary of NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace, had appealed for quashing of the FIR on the ground that she was not present at the site of digging and the government was acting with mala fide intentions against her.
The charges in the FIR against Setalvad include fabricating evidence, tampering with evidence and causing disappearance of evidence, criminal conspiracy, hurting religious feelings and trespass into burial place.