NEW DELHI, 10 October 2003 — The Supreme Court yesterday intervened over the riot- scarred state of Gujarat’s handling of last year’s communal violence following criticism of the lack of progress in prosecuting those responsible for around 2,000 deaths.

The Supreme Court said the western state would have to obtain federal clearances for special public prosecutors appointed by the state administration to try those charged with slaying Muslims.

The order was seen as a stern rebuke to the state’s Hindu nationalist BJP government, accused by rights groups of turning a blind eye to the sectarian violence which killed mostly Muslims.

The court also appointed India’s former solicitor general Harish Salve as “amicus curiae” (friend of the court) in Gujarat. Analysts said the friend of the court’s role would be as an observer to guarantee impartiality.

They said the appointment showed the Supreme Court’s lack of faith in the provincial judiciary after 21 Hindus were acquitted in July for the torching of a Muslim-owned bakery during the riots that left 12 people dead.

The ruling came during the hearing of a joint petition filed by India’s autonomous National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and 17-year-old Zaheera Sheikh to reopen the trial of 21 Hindus acquitted in the Best Bakery case.

Sheikh, whose father died in the massacre, says she and many other witnesses retracted their incriminating testimony at trial because they were threatened by local right-wing Hindu leaders. She has since fled Gujarat.

An eye-witness to a massacre in Gujarat was in New Delhi yesterday to attend the Supreme Court hearing. He said, “We have no faith in the Gujarat state administration. The only way we will get justice is if the case is taken out of the state.”

Last month the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice V.N. Khare said he had no faith in the prosecution in the riot cases or in the Gujarat government.

India’s Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who belongs to the BJP, called the riots “disturbing” but argued that the provincial administration had no hand in the religious bloodletting.

“What happened in Gujarat could disturb anyone. And then when one finds that the offenders are not brought to book that certainly creates a strong reaction,” Advani told a TV talk show on the state-run Doordarshan network, scheduled to be broadcast today.

“But at the same time I am not able to attribute it only to one case... I have seen cases as bad and which collapsed totally simply because the system is such,” he said in the interview, a copy of which was released in advance yesterday.

“I certainly do not accept that it is a deliberate subversion of justice by the (Gujarat) state government,” Advani said.

Meanwhile, 13 of the 21 acquitted Hindus were rearrested yesterday but were released on bail, police said.

“We have arrested 13 of the 21 accused in the Best Bakery case and produced them before the court,” Baroda city Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha said. He said the police had warrants issued against all 21 accused on Tuesday, but seven were still to be served.

He said the warrants were issued to ensure their attendance at an appeal of their acquittals by the Gujarat government in the state high court.

The riots in Gujarat erupted in February 2002 after a mob, believed to be Muslims, torched a train carrying Hindus, killing 59.