Twenty-three days after his arrest, the Ahmedabad sessions court on Tuesday ordered the release of Deputy Superintendent of Police K.G. Erda on bail. Erda was accused in the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre.
Erda has been ordered to be released on a personal bond of Rs 20,000 after the court held that “his being negligent in discharging his duty cannot be connected with the act of the other accused (who are allegedly involved in killing of 38 persons including former MP Ehsan Jafri)”.
Erda is the only high ranking officer to be arrested by the Supreme court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in any of the nine gruesome cases of communal killing committed during the 2002 riots. He was arrested from his residence at Valsad on February 1 on charges of abetment of murder, rioting, dereliction of duty and destruction of evidence. He is also accused of failing to collect evidence after the killings to nail the accused. In 2002, Erda was the police inspector of Meghaninagar Police Station under whose jurisdiction comes the Gulbarg society.
Erda’s counsel Mitesh Amin said, “The court observed that Erda’s negligence in conducting his duty cannot be connected with abetment of offences committed by other accused in the case. The court also took cognisance of our contention that the SIT had recorded Erda’s statement nine times and that he had been co-operating in the investigation. And being a senior government servant he will not abscond.”
{{/usCountry}}Erda’s counsel Mitesh Amin said, “The court observed that Erda’s negligence in conducting his duty cannot be connected with abetment of offences committed by other accused in the case. The court also took cognisance of our contention that the SIT had recorded Erda’s statement nine times and that he had been co-operating in the investigation. And being a senior government servant he will not abscond.”
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