By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Mumbai: The Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) that is looking into nine riots cases got Hakam Raj Singh, an absconding accused in Gujarat riots, arrested in Jabalpur on February 6.
Singh, who is allegedly involved in Naroda Patia massacre in which nearly 91 Muslims were killed by Hindu extremists during the Gujarat 2002 riots, was earlier arrested by the police but he fled away from police custody and was declared absconding in 2002.
The SIT officer Ashish Bhatia reportedly got information that Singh was hiding in Madhya Pradesh. A special team of Gujarat police was sent to the state in his pursuit. The police team arrested him in Jabalpur on Friday. ”The police team returned this evening (February 6) after a local court granted permission to bring the accused here (Ahmedabad) on a transit warrant,” Bhatia is reported to have said.
Constituted by the Supreme Court in March 2008 for re-investigating nine major cases including the Naroda Patia and the Godhra train carnage SIT is led by former CBI Chief R K Raghavan. Other members of the team are Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police C D Satpathy and three Gujarat cadre IPS officers – Geetha Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia.