Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Naroda Patiya Riots: Ex-investigator Identifies Babu Bajrangi in Court

Gujarat EDN DNA 06AUG2011

Press Trust of India

Ahmedabad: A former investigating officer of the Naroda Patiya riot case on Friday identified former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi as one of the accused and said police saved the lives of 27 persons who had been set on fire on February 28, 2002.

K K Mysorewala identified five accused in the courtroom, namely, Bajrangi, Umesh Bharvad, Murali Narayan, Raju Choumal and B J Rajput.

Mysorewala, who was a senior police inspector at the Naroda police station here during the post-Godhra riots in 2002, was deposing in the court of sessions judge Jyotsna Yagnik.

While describing the events of February 28, when as many as 95 persons were killed in Naroda Patiya area, Mysorewala said he and other policemen were patrolling in various localities following the bandh call given by the VHP and Bajrang Dal in the wake of attack on train at Godhra station.

While near Bhagyoday hotel, he received a message from the police control that Muslims were being killed near Gangotri Society and he rushed there with his team.

"On our way to Society, we saw some people in flames in a compound near the water tank," said the officer, who is now a DySP and posted in Sabarkantha.

"We pulled out 27 persons who had been set afire by the rioters and took them to civil hospital," Mysorewala told the court.

As many as 58 persons, including women and children, died in that compound, Mysorewala said, adding that he had informed his superiors about the incident.

He also told the court that his statements on the two incidents in Naroda had been recorded on more than one occasions by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Maysorewala also denied the charge by the defence lawyers that he did not take steps to control the rioting.

As his area was not notified as communally sensitive, there was no list of potential trouble-makers and so no preventive arrests were made on the night of February 27, 2002, he said.



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