Naroda Gam: Court concludes hearing on plea to make 2 officers accused

A special SIT court here today reserved its order on an application seeking to make former IPS officer Rahul Sharma and former investigating officer P L Mall accused in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case.

Special SIT judge M K Dave is likely to pronounce the order on May 14.

Some of the accused in the case have filed an application that Sharma and Mall be made accused.

Sharma, who had collected call detail records of ministers and bureaucrats during the 2002 post-Godhra riots to pinpoint their locations, didn't submit the original CD of this data to the probe agencies, while Mall failed to arrest Sharma for this "destruction of evidence", the application alleged.

Sharma submitted a duplicate CD as evidence which did not contain some vital call details which would have been in favour of the accused, the accused persons' lawyer said.

Sharma, who argued himself, said in his defence that the application was erroneous, as it was because he submitted the CD to the riots inquiry commission that the existence of the CD came to light.

Eleven Muslims were killed by a mob in the Naroda Gam locality of Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train carnage.

In 2009, the SIT filed a charge sheet in the case against 83 persons, including former Gujarat minister and BJP leader Maya Kodnani.