Gulberg riot victims want Bhatt as witness, 4 cops as accused

Ahmedabad, Oct 4: The Gulberg society riot victims on Oct 3 filed an application at a special court here seeking to make suspended IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt a witness in the ongoing trial of the 2002 carnage and demanded the addition of four top policemen as accused in the case.

Designated judge B J Dhandha has fixed the hearing on these applications on October 18.

The application was filed by the 2002 riot victims after the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) submitted its final report on the complaint of Zakia Jaffery, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey who was killed in Gulberg Society riots, alleging a larger conspiracy behind the riots, which was referred back to the trial court by the Apex court.

Requesting the court to examine Bhatt as a witness, the application contends that the IPS officer, who has been arrested after an FIR was registered against him, had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in connection with the riots case alleging complicity of top policemen and politicians of the state in the 2002 riots.

A similar application was filed by victims of the Gulberg Society seeking the court's directions under section 319 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to implicate the then city Police Commissioner PC Pande, Joint Commissioner of Police M K Tandon, DCP PB Gondia and first investigating officer ACP SS Chudasama.

Their implication was sought for alleged dereliction of duty during the violence.

On two previous occasions, the special court had turned down the plea to add the cops as accused on the ground that the proceeding was pending before the Supreme Court.

The SIT had given a clean chit to these cops in May this year and told the court that no evidence reflecting dereliction of duty on their part was found.

Only one cop, Meghaninagar police inspector KG Erda, has been arrested in this case for dereliction of duty.

PTI