The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed former CBI Director R.K. Raghavan to bow out of his responsibilities as the chairman of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul recorded the Supreme Court's appreciation for the long years of work Mr. Raghavan put in at the helm of the sensitive investigation into the riots cases.
The court also acceded to a request made by by K. Venkatesham, a SIT member, to recuse him from the SIT as he has been appointed the Police Commissioner of Nagpur and wanted to fully devote his time to his police duties.
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The court requested A.K. Malhotra, the lone surviving member of the SIT, to file the quarterly reports on the progress made in the Godhra cases to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court-appointed SIT probed nine major post-Godhra riots cases. These include the Gulberg Society massacre and riots in Ode, Sardarpura, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patya, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghavapura.
The SIT in 2012 had given then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 57 others a clean chit in the Gulberg case and sought its closure.
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The apex court had last year allowed more time for the completion of trial in the Naroda Gaon case. The trial court was yet to examine nearly 300 witnesses.
In the eight cases other than Naroda Gaon, the trial courts have already pronounced their judgments and the cases are at the stage of appeal in the State High Court.
The SIT has been the ears and eyes of the Supreme Court for years while the court monitored the nine cases after the National Human Rights Commission and various NGOs termed the police investigation shoddy.