SC RELIEVES SIT CHIEF FROM 2002 GUJARAT RIOTS PROBE

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed RK Raghavan, who was heading the apex courtappointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, to be relieved as the head of the team.

A bench comprising Chief Justice JS Khehar and justice DY Chandrachud and justice SK Kaul considered the submission of senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court as amicus curiae, that Raghavan be relieved from the duty.

The bench hailed the work done so far by the SIT and allowed the request of Salve, while asking AK Malhotra, another member of the SIT, to oversee the functioning of the probe team.

It also relieved another member, K Venkatesam, from the SIT and asked Malhotra to continue filing quarterly status report about the progress in the riots cases in the apex court.

The top court-appointed SIT has been probing nine major postGodhra riots cases, including the Naroda Gam riots case pertaining to the killing of eleven members of a community.

The apex court had on September 19 last year granted six months to a lower court in Gujarat to conclude trial in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case, one of the nine post-Godhra riots matters probed by the SIT, after Salve and Raghavan sought the same saying the trial court has to examine nearly 300 witnesses.

The apex court was earlier informed that in other eight cases, investigation has been completed, the trial courts have pronounced the judgements and the cases are at the stage of appeal in the high court.

Eleven people belonging to the minority community were killed at Naroda Gam in 2002 riots during a bandh called to protest the Godhra train burning incident. A total of 82 persons are facing trial in the case.

In June last year, a special court had convicted 24 persons in the Gulberg society riots case in which 68 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed.