Gujarat riots: Ex-DGP P C Pandey gets clean chit

New Delhi: In what is a shot in the arm for the Narendra Modi government in the election season, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating team (SIT) of the Gujarat Police has given a clean chit to controversial ex-DGP of the state, P C Pandey.

Pandey was the Ahmedabad police commissioner during the 2002 Gujarat communal riots.

The SIT - in its report filed in the Supreme Court - has said Pandey was in the hospital at the time of the Gulbarg society incident in which former Congress MP E Zafri and his family members were allegedly burnt alive by rioters, most of whom belonged to the Sangh Parivar .

Pandey, who has been targetted by human right's activists like Teesta Setalvad and others for his partisan role, has been cleared of all charges after seven years.

According to the SIT report, Pandey was in the hospital helping those injured during the riots when the Gulbarg society incident took place.

Teesta, however, denied the allegations made by Gujarat State Council before the Supreme Court on Monday that the affidavits filed by the NGO headed by Teesta were false and selective.

A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat on Monday suggested that the Gujarat government set up a sufficient number of fast track courts for speedy disposal of riot related cases including ten major cases which include the Gulbarg society case, the Naroda Patia case and the Sardar Pura case.

Several organisations including the National Human Rights Commission have filed petition in the Supreme Court seeking CBI investigation in the riot cases as they had no faith in Gujarat police, which according to them, was shielding the culprits and most of them belonged to the ruling party in the state.

The Supreme Court while turning down the plea for CBI investigation in these cases, however, sought the response of the state government on the plea of transfer of these cases outside the state and on the issue of protection of witnesses so that they can depose freely before the courts against the accused persons in the riot cases which were sparked off following the Godhra train burning incident in February 2002 when 59 kar sevaks in bogey number S 6 were charred to death.