NEW DELHI, 26 March 2008 — Six years after Hindu mobs killed and burned Muslims in an orgy of violence in the western state of Gujarat, India’s Supreme Court yesterday ordered that a five-member team probe the riots.

The team will have three senior police officers from Gujarat — Gita Johri, Sivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia — along with retired Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director R.K. Raghavan and former Director General of Police C.B. Satpathy.

The court will formally issue the order constituting the team today.

The Supreme Court’s decision was in response to a petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission, seeking transfer of trial of riots cases from Gujarat and their investigation by an independent agency such as the CBI. The bench, comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, P. Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, heard arguments of senior counsel Harish Salve and Gujarat government’s counsel Mukul Rohatagi for more than an hour before announcing its decision.

The petition was filed by the rights commission after several witnesses turned hostile amid allegations of threat, coercion and inducement to derail the investigation.

The bench had earlier sought federal government’s response to the pleas. In its reply, the government told the court that it was willing to have the cases investigated by the CBI and tried outside Gujarat.

“The central government submits it would have no objection to the investigation of the cases by the CBI and transfer outside the state of Gujarat, if so desired by this court,” the Home Ministry told the court in its affidavit.

The court, however, has ignored the government’s willingness to have the cases transferred to the CBI for probe. Instead, the bench has suggested formation of the special team to carry out further probe.

The cases that are to be handed over for probe relate to rape, murder and arson at various places including those at Godhra town, Gulbarg Society and Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad, Best Bakery in Vadodara, Baranpura, Machipith, Tarsali, Raghovpura and Pandarwada. These include the incident in which former Congress legislator Ahasan Jafri and his family members were burned alive by rioters who were protesting against the Godhra train-burning incident.

Human rights activists welcomed the fresh probe. “In the course of investigation and even after the filing of charge sheets, the police sedulously avoided arresting persons who were members of a political party or of a private army owing allegiance to that political party which held the reins of government in the state,” Teesta Setalvad, an activist said in a statement.

Tensions between Muslims and Hindus spiraled into a month of rioting in 2002 in Gujarat after 59 Hindu activists died when their train cars caught fire in Godhra town. Hard-line Hindus alleged the train was attacked by a mob of Muslim vendors angry over nonpayment by the Hindu activists returning from a visit to the northern Indian town of Ayodhya. A subsequent government inquiry found that a train car caught fire when a kerosene stove the passengers were using for cooking overturned.

Thousands of Muslims were hacked and burned to death and woman raped when Hindu fanatics rampaged the state’s cities and town, rights groups said.

Officials say that 4,252 cases were registered in Gujarat, but more than 2,000 dropped for lack of evidence.