2002 Gulburg riot victims want ex-DGP Pande to be made accused

In the application,the victims have accused Pande who was the Ahmedabad city police commissioner at time of the riots,and other police officers,of deliberate dereliction of duty which led to the killing of 69 persons including ex-MP Ehsan Jaffery on February 28,2002.

The victims said that Pande,who after retirement was appointed as chairman of Police Housing Board,deliberately did not send additional forces to Gulburg society for protection of the people there and ignored seriousness of the situation.

They further alleged that though Pande had visited the society around 1030 hrs on the day of the incident and assured Jaffery of providing adequate security,he sat in his office from 1100 hrs to 1600 hrs till the rioters finished their job.

The victims have demanded that Pande be made accused in the case and be booked for deliberate dereliction of duty.

The other police officers who have been named with Pande include P B Gondia,the then DCP Zone IV and S S Chudasama,who was ACP (crime branch) in February 2002,and former Joint Commissioner of Police M K Tandon.

The victims have alleged that though Gondia was DCP in charge of the Meghaninagar area where the Gulburg society was located,he did nothing to stop the mob from acting.

Gondia,an IPS officer,is presently posted as Joint Director,Civil Defence.

For Chudasama,who was the former investigating officer in the case,they have alleged that he had deliberately not included statements of surviving victims of the incident.

They have further alleged that Chudasama,who had filed the first chargesheet in the case in 2002,did not investigate the incident properly and avoided taking statements of victims who survived the incident.

Chudasama has also been alleged of destruction of crucial evidence in the case like the CD containing phone call records of important persons,prepared by IPS Rahul Sharma while he was in-charge of the control room during the 2002 riots.

The victims alleged that Chudasama was the one behind the original phone call records’ CD made by Sharma going missing,and hence not being part of chargesheet as evidence.

“Clearly evident is the fact that the top Gujarat officers turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the pleas of victims under attack for reasons best known to them,” the victims said in their plea.

The court had earlier rejected the riot vicitms’ application demanding that another IPS officer Tandon be made an accused in the case. However,they have made a similar demand again.

Tandon was Joint Commissionr of Police of sector 2,under whose jursidiction Gulburg society comes. He is retired now.