Author: HT Correspondent
Publication: Hindustan Times
Date: May 28, 2011
Gulberg Society CASE No evidence found to
support charge of dereliction of duty against Pande
he Supreme Courtappointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Friday told
a special court that it 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 February 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 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 said that during the 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.
HC REJECTS TEESTA PLEA ON QUASHING FIR Justice
GB Shah of the Gujarat high court 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.
