Godhra: SIT gives clean chit to top cop

The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) gave a clean chit to former top cop PC Pande in connection with post Godhra riots in 2002.

The former Director General of Police of Gujarat, who was the then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, was accused of negligence of duty in the Gulbarga Society massacre case, where former Congress MP Ehsaan Jaffery was killed.

Zakia Jafri, widow Ehsan Jafri, had named Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Pande and 61 others of conspiracy during the riots in the case filed in the Supreme Court.

Ehsaan Jaffery was burnt to death by the rioters on Feb 28, 2002.

“Mr Pande had come to our society as crowds were building up and even promised more forces. But that never happened. He is perhaps singularly most responsible for the massacre at Gulbarg,” said Zakia Jaffery.

However, the SIT cleared Pande?s name and said he did not neglect his duty during the massacre and took all required action.

The Gujarat High Court will hear SIT?s version on May 31 and take a final decision on giving a clean chit to Pande.

The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002 left hundreds of Muslims dead, injured and tortured and came as a blot in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP rule). The riots followed an incident of train burning in Godhra in which Hindus returning from Ayodhya were killed by a Muslim mob.

Around 1,000 supporters of prime accused Maulvi Umarjihad attacked the coach at the Godhra station and torched it killing 59 people and injuring many.