SC asks Gujarat govt to set up SIT within 10 days

NEW DELHI :The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Narendra Modi government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) within 10 days headed by the former CBI director RK Raghavan to probe the major Godhra riot cases. The court asked the probe panel to complete its fresh investigation into such cases within 3 months. It will also include the one in which Mohd. Rafudan Ansari and another person are named as the accused who torched the Sabarmati Express at Godhra, leaving 59 dead. A bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat, Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Aftab Alam said, the SIT “shall inquire, investigate/further investigate into these cases”. The court asked the probe panel to submit its report in a sealed cover within three months. The SIT would be free to evolve its own modalities for the purpose of carrying out investigations into the cases. Needless, to say the SIT would also be free to record the evidence of any witnesses it deems necessary for arriving at its conclusions and the State Government should provide all necessary support and infrastructure for the purpose, court said. Besides Mr Raghavan, the five-member team would comprise former DGP of Uttar Pradewsh CB Satpathy and three senior police officers from Gujarat Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhatia. Ms Johri will be the convernor of SIT, apex court ordered. She headed the investigations into the fake encounter killings of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi in 2005 and was at the centre of a controversy after being removed from the probe team allegedly at the behest chief minister Narender Modi. But Ms Johri was reinstated in May last year by the apex court which asked why she was removed from the investigations into the murder of Sheikh, an alleged gangster facing TADA charges. While ordering for the constitution of SIT, the apex court talked tought on the religious fanatics. “Religious fanatics do not belong to any religion they are worse than terrorists.No religion teaches hatred. If in the name of religion people are liquidated then essentially it is a slur and blot on the society,” the court said. It said that communal harmony was the hallmark of democracy. Appreciating the stand of the Gujarat government that it was not opposed to any further investigations into the cases, the Bench said it only “fortified” the view that the State prefers to be “transparent” in its approach to the issue. The court passed the order on a bunch of petitions filed by the National Human Rights Commission, NGOs and on behalf of the riot victims which had sought transfer of the trial of the riots’ cases outside Gujarat and further investigation or re-investigation by the CBI. The petitions were filed after several witnesses turned hostile amidst allegations of threat, coercion and inducement to derail the investigation. These cases mainly relate to the alleged killings of minorities in places like Godhra, Gulberg Society, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patya, Sardarpura, ODH and Deepla Darwaza. The court also took into account the plea of senior counsel Harish Salve who assisted as amicus curaie in the matter. In his written note Salve had said that the trials in cases of Gulberg Society, Ode, Sardarpura, Naroda Gaon and Patiya was stayed by the apex court over 3 years back. “One way could be to have some independent agency examine the allegations relating to Gulberg Society incident in the first instance, at least, or all these major cases together are investigated, so that the veracity of the mutual allegations is established, and/or the allegations now made in relation to the conduct of the police, based upon the CD’s” said amicus written note. The Gulberg Society located in the eastern part of the capital city of Ahmedabad had witnessed the killing 39 persons and missing of 31 people as per FIR. It includes the brutal killing of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ehsan Jafri in the 2002 riots. Salve talked about the allegations that the two CDs with more than 5 lakh entries were lying with the Gujarat police which are now with the Nanavati-Shah riots panel. These CD’s, it is alleged, contain records of all cell phone calls made in Ahmedabad over the first five days of the riots which saw the worst incidents. Salve further said that the State has been unable to explain on the appointment of some persons as public prosecutors, one of whom had even appeared for the accused, the manner in which bail was granted to those accused of heinous offences, and the approach of the State in the matter. “It is submitted that the present cases are those of communal violence. It is indisputable that these cases represent, in the least, a breakdown of the constitutional machinery for preservation of the public order in the State” said Salve.
THE ECONOMIC TIMES; 27 Mar, 2008, 0315 hrs IST, TNN