Now, police inspector is ‘Nero playing fiddle’

The special trial court which recently convicted and sentenced 32 persons, including BJP MLA Maya Kodnani, to life imprisonment in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre case has come down heavily on the Gujarat Police which first probed the case before the Supreme Court formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for the same.

In a severe indictment of the first investigating officer (IO) in the case, K K Mysorewala, the court said, "When Rome was burning, Nero was playing fiddle," an expression first used by the apex court when it quashed the acquittal of the accused in the Best Bakery case and ordered a retrial in Maharashtra.

The special court, however, chose not to implead Mysorewala and others whom the victims wanted arraigned as accused.

Mysorewala was the senior police inspector of Naroda Police Station when the massacre took place. "While people were flocking the streets, leaving their households inside, Shri K K Mysorewala reported to the Control Room that everything is okay. Khairiyat Hai -There is peace and happiness in Patiya area.' It was like 'When Rome was burning, Nero was playing fiddle'," the order noted in its judgment.

According to the judgment, Mysorewala did not make any preventive steps on February 27, 2002, and failed to make proper security arrangements in spite of the fact that 12 of the victims of Godhra carnage were from Naroda area. The court also found Mysorewala's claim of having fired many bullets on February 28, 2002 to disperse the mob as "doubtful". "Up to March 8, 2002, no substantial steps were taken to arrest the accused named in the FIR," the court held.

"His investigation is mockery of the word 'investigation'," the judge said.

Two other IOs in the case, P N Barot and S S Chudasama, also came for criticism by the court, which highlighted numerous instances to show poor investigation in the case. In one of them, a 20-day-old baby was shown as 20-year-old boy whose statement the police had purportedly recorded.

... contd.

ALSO READ

Nine city cops booked for ‘custodial death’

HC raps Narendra Modi govt for 'shielding' accused cops

T-shirts, comic books, games join in 'Modi for PM' chorus

Annual census of herbivores in Gir begins