Naroda Gam riot case: testimony of IO ends after 22 months

Testimony of the investigating officer in the 2002 Naroda Gam riot case today ended after 22 months.
Eleven persons of the minority community were killed in the violence at Naroda Gam here during the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Former Gujarat minister Mayaben Kodnani is one of the 79 accused in the case.
The case was probed by the Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team.
P L Mall, the investigating officer, deposed before special court judge P B Desai over the last 22 months.
Mall, now the Superintendent of Police in Sabarkantha district, was the 187th witness to depose. The trial started in 2009.

His testimony was mainly about what triggered the violence and on what evidence SIT charged the accused.
It was Mall, the then Deputy SP with SIT, who had arrested Kodnani in 2009. Kodnani has been sentenced to a 28-year jail term in the Naroda Patiya riot case.