Former city top cop Pandey had no criminal role in riot: SIT

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was set up to probe the 2002 Gulberg Society riot case, told the trial court here today that former Ahmedabad city Police Commissioner P C Pandey had no criminal role in the incident.
"Former Commissioner of Police in the city P C Pandey was not accused of any negligence. No criminality was shown by him nor attributed to him and therefore no departmental inquiry was conducted against Pandey," SIT Special Public Prosecutor R C Kodekar told the court.
The Supreme Court-appointed SIT told trial court Judge P B Desai that no departmental inquiry was conducted against two other police officers including a former Joint Commissioner of Police M K Tandon and the then Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) S S Chudasama since they had retired by the year 2009 when SIT had recommended an inquiry against the police officers to Gujarat government.

"On July 2, 2009, SIT wrote a letter to the then Director General of Police (DGP) to conduct a departmental inquiry against 18 Gujarat police officers including Tandon and Chudasama.
Responding to the letter, the DGP had said that, in principle, the police had accepted a probe into the role of police officers (during riots) but as per Rule 24 (b) of the Gujarat Civil Services Rules, no inquiry can be conducted against Tandon and Chudasma," Kodekar said.
Kodekar mentioned SIT's closure report before a local court in the year 2011 here and said that it had already investigated the role of top state functionaries, including police officers, and found no negligence on their part due to which no criminal role could be attributed to them.