‘INCLUDE TOP COP AS ACCUSED IN GULBERG MASSACRE CASE’

‘INCLUDE TOP COP AS ACCUSED IN GULBERG MASSACRE CASE’

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July 21, 2022

In a significant development in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case, the prosecution on December 24 moved an application to name eight people – including the then Joint Commissioner of Ahmedabad Police M K Tandon – as accused. Besides Tandon, the others who have been demanded to be named as accused by the victims’ lawyer S M Vora include the then inspector of Meghaninagar police station N D Parmar, former Ahmedabad Deputy Mayor Jagroop Singh Rajput, the then police constable Rajesh Jinger, Manish Patel alias Splendor, Babu Marwadi, Iniyo Harijan and Mahendra Pukhraj. They have been demanded to be named as accused after certain witnesses deposed before the special court and named them either for conducting, instigating or abetting the massacre. Tandon, now retired, has been accused of tampering with evidence, abetment to the rioters and dereliction of duty. According to the application, he is accused of tampering with the dead bodies, which were left at the Gulberg Society after the massacre on February 28, 2002.

Saeed Khan Pathan, an eyewitnesse, who survived the attack, said before the court that while leaving the society on February 28, he had requested Tandon to let him take the bodies of his relatives, which were identifiable. Tandon had allegedly ordered to keep bodies with the police. Incidentally, the same bodies were unidentifiable when the survivors of the massacre reached the Kalandari Kabrastan for identification, a few days later. The application also alleges that Tandon failed to provide either security or extra police force at the massacre site despite repeated demands by the subordinate officers.

N D Parmar has been accused of manipulating statements of the witnesses during the investigation in 2002 and intentionally omitting names of certain accused. Parmar is now a Dy SP. Vora has also alleged that all the eight people are influential and have managed to get themselves absolved from the charges by the police despite several affidavits and statements by the victims before the police, including the Special Investigation Team (SIT).