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Journalism of Courage
A case that was closed for want of evidence has suddenly been reopened by the police. After a scrutiny of the case papers, police manage to arrest two persons, one a BJP leader, against whom they had claimed they had no evidence.
The recent Supreme Court directive to the Gujarat government for review of all closed 2,108 riot cases has made the cops pull up their socks. Within three days of the order, the police arrested two ‘‘absconders’’ in connection with the Naroda-Patiya massacre.
Yesterday, the police arrested two persons — Madansinh Naransinh Lodha, a local BJP leader from Dudheshwar area, and Shrawan Bhagwan Chaudhry.
Lodha is presently general secretary of the BJP’s Dariapur-Kajipur Mandal. But the BJP’s preferring to stay mum on the arrest. ‘‘How can I react to this though he is a party worker. It’s the Supreme Court orders that are being followed,’’ said BJP city president Maya Kodnani.
Lodha and Chaudhry were allegedly part of the mob that stabbed and burnt alive Nazarkhan Vazirkhan Pathan, 20, and another unidentified man on March 1, 2002. The incident took place barely a kilometre from the Dudheshwar police outpost.
On March 30, 2002, Nazirkhan, brother of the deceased, lodged a complaint with then Police Commissioner P.C. Pande and named four, including Lodha, alleging they were part of the mob.
On September 20, 2002, the police closed the case on grounds of ‘‘insufficient evidence’’.
Following the Supreme Court’s directive, when the case was scrutinised by DCP (Zone II) V.M. Parghi, glaring loopholes were found. ‘‘The arrests have been made after proper study of the case. Further investigations are on,’’ Parghi said.
Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police K.R. Kaushik today ordered a thorough inquiry and action against then investigating officer, Police Inspector D.D. Makwana, who had closed the case. Makwana, when contacted by The Indian Express, said: ‘‘I had closed the case as I found the allegations against those named as accused to be false. The names were given two months after the incident. During investigation, no witnesses were found and there were seven persons in the same area by the name of Shrawan, who had been named as an accused. How many people was I supposed to arrest?’’
‘‘When we gave the names of the accused, police said we were lying and settling a personal score. They then closed the case. We never thought they would put them (the accused) behind bars after two-and-a-half years,’’ said Nazirkhan.
