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Fugitive from law, this killer
BJP MLA contested polls
Gujarat
riot suspect Fatehsinh Chauhan even won an assembly seat while in
hiding
WSN Network
 Ahmedabad:
Shame continues to visit the saffron parivar in India as another
Gujarat BJP politician was arrested earlier this week for his role
in the 2002 Gujarat massacre of Muslims under the watch of CM
Narendra Modi. He had been absconding for four years.
Fatehsinh
Chauhan, sitting MLA from Rajgarh constituency, charged with
looting, rioting and arson in 21 Muslim dominated villages in
Panchmahals district during the riots, surrendered at the Devgarh
Baria police station in adjoining Dahod district, 220 km east of
Ahmedabad, Earlier in March, the then Women and Child Development
Minister Maya Kodnani had been arrested for allegedly leading a mob
which attacked and killed Muslims in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya area.
“The accused
surrendered and was immediately arrested,”said Vipul Agarwal, Dahod
superintendent of police.
A case against
Chauhan was first registered in 2002, but later withdrawn for want
of evidence. Three years later, however, it had to be reopened at
the direction of the Supreme Court. The case, however, is not among
the nine being investigated by the Supreme Court appointed Special
Investigation Team (SIT).
Though
officially proclaimed as ‘absconding’, Chauhan freely contested the
2007 assembly elections from Rajgarh, and won. Clearly, instead of
arresting him, the government was protecting him. He even campaigned
for the BJP during the recent Lok Sabha elections but the Indian
state as well as the law enforcement machinery made a mockery of
notions of justice by allowing him to move freely.
The surrender
comes at a time when Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is himself
under the Special Investigation Team scanner for his alleged role in
abetting the riots. The Nanavati-Mehta Commission, investigating the
riots, which had in its first report given Modi practically a clean
chit, is also re-examining his role. The development coming on first
day of the budget session of Gujarat assembly is largely due to the
pressure building on the state due to the Supreme Court’s monitoring
of the riot cases.
1
July 2009
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