Some police officials, who were accused of being associated with the Naroda Patiya massacre, can breathe easy after the court verdict.
Victims of the Naroda Patiya massacre, which happened during the 2002 riots, had demanded in court that names of nearly six police officials should also be included in the list of accused.
In 2011, victims had moved an application in court under section 319 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) alleging seven top police officials were also involved in the massacre. The cops who were accused of being involved are former police commissioner PC Pande, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) PB Gondia, and police inspectors of Naroda police station, KK Mysorewala and VS Gohil. KP Parekh and BV Dantania, both SRP officials, as well as DCP (Zone V) R J Savani too were named in the application.
However, the court has rejected the plea. Talking about it, special public prosecutor in the Naroda Patia case, Gaurang Vyas, said, “Victims of the Naroda Patia incident had moved a plea in court under section 319 of CrPC to include police officials. But the court has rejected it.”
He also said that the reasons about not considering the plea are not known yet. “We have not received the copy of the verdict today, so we don’t know the court’s observations for rejecting the plea,” Vyas added.
Section 319 of CrPC has provision where the court may proceed against a person, other than the accused, if during trial evidence is put forward from which it appears that the person did commit an offence for which he/she can be tried along with the accused.
The CJP (Citizen for Justice and Peace) had moved the plea to further investigate the said cops in the case and arraign them as accused.
