NEW DELHI, 27 March 2008 — The Indian Supreme Court yesterday directed the Gujarat government to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) within 10 days to reinvestigate communal riots in the state. The team should submit its report to the court within three months, the bench headed by Justice Arjit Pasayat ruled.
The team has been allowed by the court to prepare its own modalities for carrying out the investigation. It will include three senior police officers from Gujarat, Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia, besides former Director General of UP Police A. Sathpathy and former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director R.K. Raghavan. Raghavan would be the chairman of the team while Johri would be its convener.
The Supreme Court’s decision follows a petition filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking the trial of riot cases outside Gujarat and their reinvestigation by an independent agency like the CBI.
The court will issue further orders after the team submits its report. The next court hearing is likely to take place in August, sources said. There are indications that the team will not reinvestigate the cases but will only extend the probe further. If need be, some witnesses may be questioned again.
In case the investigation is not found to be satisfactory, the case could be transferred outside the state, in keeping with the demand made by social activist Teesta Setalvaad, the court said.
The cases to be handled by SIT are linked to rape, murder and arson at various places in Gujarat, during the 2002 carnage, including those at Godhra town, Gulbarg Society and Naroda Patiya in Ahmedabad, Best Bakery in Vadodara, Baranpura, Machipith, Tarsali, Raghovpura and Pandarwada.
Earlier this year, the government told the court it had no objection to Gujarat cases being probed by CBI and tried outside the state. The NHRC had filed a plea in 2003 for an impartial probe into the Gujarat riot cases. The Supreme Court stayed the investigations in 2005.
The NHRC, which had been closely monitoring the post-riot situation in Gujarat, petitioned the Supreme Court seeking further investigation by an independent agency and retrial outside Gujarat.
“Whenever a criminal goes unpunished, it is the society at large that suffers because the victims become demoralized and criminals get encouraged. It, therefore, becomes the duty of the court to use all its powers to unearth the truth and provide justice so that the crime is punished,” the NHRC said in its petition.
