Ex-DGP bats for cops ‘coming out in the open’ on 2002 riots

“Gujarat Police is among the better state police in the country. However,it is very hard to explain why it remained so slow during the 2002 riots. It is true that hands of the police always remain tied but the sluggishness was inexplicable,” Nampoothiri told The Sunday Express on the sidelines of a public hearing of women’s issues here on Saturday.

Reacting to the arrest of Bhatt by Ahmedabad police,he said,“It is good that officers like him and Rahul Sharma are coming out in the open and telling what had happened during that time.”

The IPS officer,who served the Gujarat Police for 34 years before retiring in 1998 as DGP,said that though the police force collectively failed to respond aptly to the situation,a few officers dared do what was warranted.

During his tenure as special rapporteur to NHRC,Nampoothiri had filed a report on the post-riot condition in the state. Later,in an interview to this newspaper in 2008,he had alleged that the state government had not complied with almost any of the recommendations made by the Commission.

Among its chief recommendations,the body had asked that five specific cases of Godhra,Best Bakery,Sardarpura,Naroda Patiya and Gulberg Society be investigated by the CBI and religious place that were destroyed during the riots be restored.

It had also recommended that relief camps should not be closed until it was ascertained that the situation was fit for people to return to their homes. However,the government closed all the camps on June 30,2002.