Sources said the SIT will name at least 10 witnesses of the Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya massacres of 2002 in its final report, which is to be submitted before the apex court later this month.

The 10 key prosecution witnesses, who are accused of intentional omission of information of an offence way back in 2002, include the Deputy District Development Officer (DDDO), Amreli, Gaurav Prajapati and the

District Supply Officer, Gandhinagar, Dheeraj Rathod. The list also includes names of some state police personnel, sources said.

While Kodnani is wanted in both Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya cases, Patel has been declared absconder only in the Naroda Gam case. A total of 22 and 24 witnesses have respectively named Kodnani and Patel in their recent statements before the SIT.

These statements, coupled with Kodnani and Patel’s mobile phone records on February 28, 2002 and some ‘glaring lapses’ in their own statements, according to the SIT officials, have provided them strong grounds to arrest the two.

The SIT said Prajapati, Rathod and other prosecution witnesses are accused of misleading earlier police probes in the two cases and may have to face strict action soon.

“Prajapati and Rathod are likely to be booked under Section 202 of the Indian

Penal Code, which calls for intentional omission to give information about an offence to be punished with imprisonment for six months. This was discussed in one of our recent meetings,” said a

senior SIT officer refusing to be named.

Prajapati and Rathod, respectively held offices of the Ahmedabad city Sub District Magistrate and the Daskroi Taluka Mamlatdar during the 2002 riots. While deposing before the then investigating police team, the two had testified that Kodnani and Patel were present at the Sola Civil Hospital till 1.30 pm on February 28, 2002, when Naroda Gam and Naroda Patiya massacres were going on.

Charred bodies of Karsevaks, who had died in the ill-fated S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra railway station a day earlier, had been first brought to the Sola Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. Patel had come with the dead body-laden trucks from Godhra in the early hours of February 28.

Arrest of Kodnani and Patel, who had been named by several victims even then, was being considered almost imminent. “It was, however, because of Prajapati and Rathod’s statements that the two were given benefit of doubt and their arrests got thwarted,” said a senior SIT officer.

After more than six years, Prajapati and Rathod changed their statements because of the revelations made by Inspector M D Lathia of the Sola police, whose statement was recorded by the SIT for the first time after the incident.

Lathia, who is posted in Kheda district at present, was summoned by the SIT on November 10, 2008. The officer startled the SIT by revealing that while Kodnani had rushed to Shahibaug from the hospital around 10.30 am on the fateful day, Patel was in the hospital till 9.30 am only and not till late afternoon as claimed earlier.

Sources said that on being “grilled” by the SIT on the basis of Lathia’s statement and mobile phone records of Kodnani and Patel, Prajapati and Rathod changed their statements in November last year.