NARODA PATIA CASE

Prosecute more cops: Witnesses

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: While the Supreme Court-mandated special investigation team (SIT) has been successfully dodging the issue of implicating cops in riots cases by claiming that further probe is underway, the witnesses have also decided not to give up their legal battle.

Within a month’s time the special court hearing the Naroda Patia case disposed off an application demanding prosecution of top cops like P C Pande and M K Tandon, witnesses have come up with another application. This time they are demanding that the court should arraign then Naroda PIs K K Mysorewala and V S Gohil, SRP officer Ketan Parikh and an SRP commando identified as Dataniya.

Witnesses’ counsel Yusuf Shaikh said that the court has examined 60 eye witnesses, and of them eight witnesses have described Mysorewala’s role in the violence that witnessed 95 persons dead on February 28, 2002. The lawyer said that they are seeking Mysorewala’s arraignment on basis of evidence that has come on court’s record, which cannot be overlooked.

Mysorewala and Gohil have been accused of gross dereliction of duty on the fateful day. While a witness testified that Mysorewala became part of the mob and ordered it to open fire on Muslims, another witness told the court that the cop told her, “It is decided that you have to die today”.

The SRP officials have been sought to be arraigned because when hapless people ran for cover and requested the officials to let them inside the SRP quarters, the personnel headed by Parikh not only refused, but also started beating them. According to witnesses, Parikh even pointed gun at Muslims and lobbed teargas shells on them to push them to open fields. The same role has been attributed in regards with Dataniya.

Advocate Sheikh said that specific evidence has come on court’s record, and on this basis the investigating officer should have taken action against these persons. However, since SIT is silent, witnesses have to move the application under section 319 of CrPC to arraign these cops.

The lawyer also filed a similar plea in November last year to probe further the call records obtained during the riots period, but SIT’s assurance that further investigation was underway nullified the application. “SIT has not done anything in regards with the last application. We are moving another application on Wednesday morning,” advocate Shaikh said.