2002 riots: Gujarat HC tells govt not to pursue litigation against IPS ex-officer only ‘for sake of pursuing’

The CAT bench had held that the chargesheet was “tainted by mischief” and “coloured by malice and malafide”. The CDs were accepted as evidence by the Nanavati Commission, which was set up to probe the burning of the Sabarmati Express in 2002 and the subsequent riots in Gujarat.

The state government had challenged the CAT verdict before the Gujarat HC in 2016. The petition has been pending since then.

Sharma, who took voluntary retirement from the service in 2015 and is now a practising HC lawyer, has submitted before the HC that there is nothing to argue in the case now.

However, the government counsel sought an adjournment from the bench of Justice N V Anjaria and Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy on Thursday, submitting that he is required to take instructions on the matter.

Justice Anjaria orally told the government counsel, “Don’t pursue the case for the sake of pursuing, we will pass appropriate observations to protect everybody.”

The court will hear the case next on November 30.

During the 2002 Gujarat riots, Sharma was assisting the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch in connection to its probe into Naroda Patiya and Naroda Gam cases and had collected call detail records from two private mobile service providers as part of evidence.

The CDs, which contained the call records of politicians and bureaucrats during the riots, became public in 2004 after Sharma submitted them before the Nanavati Commission. The state had chargesheeted him in 2011 on grounds that he should have submitted the CDs either in a court or before the investigating officer.

In May this year, a sessions court in Ahmedabad had acquitted all 67 people, including BJP former minister Maya Kodnani, an accused in the Naroda Gam case.