Naroda Patiya massacre: Former DGP blames BJP govt for 'police inaction'

Hailing the special court verdict in the Naroda Patiya massacre case, former Gujarat DGP Jatavedan Namboodiri today said it would have been better if "police action" on the matter had also been investigated.

"Police had ample time to intervene in the brutal murder of 97 members of the minority community, especially women and children...," he said.

"Still police did nothing... if police had discharged its duties punctually, no untoward incident would have occurred in Naroda-Patiya," he said, adding, it would have been better if the "police inaction" had also been investigated.

Namboodiri said he was in Gujarat at the time of the riots in 2002 associated with the activities of the Human Rights Commission, after retiring from the post of Director General of Police.

Four-thousand cases had been registered in connection with the Gujarat riots, he said.

A special court had on August 31 sentenced BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Narendra Modi government, to 28 years imprisonment in the Naroda Patiya massacre - the worst of 2002 post-Godhra riots - in which 97 people were killed. It also gave a life term to a Bajrang Dal leader till death. Of the 29 other convicts, seven were given a jail term of 21 years.

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