The Gujarat High Court has ordered a fresh probe into one of the post-Godhra riot cases, eight years after the incident.
Justice Akil Kureshi has asked the Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad Rural, to open a new inquiry into the February 28, 2002 rioting at Viramgam, in which three members of the minority community were killed and eight injured. The probe has to be completed in three months.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by Doshmohammad Bhatti, who claimed that the police had recorded the statement of only one eyewitness though there were more eyewitnesses to the attack.
The police had investigated the case and filed a charge sheet against 10 persons. The trial began in the Viramgam Sessions Court in 2006. But Bhatti, claimed to be an eyewitness himself, filed an application in the court in January this year, demanding further investigation. After the Sessions Court rejected it, he moved the High Court.
“The assertions of the petitioner that there were other eyewitnesses need a closer examination. If there were other persons, as it is likely, whose testimony may throw some light on the manner in which the incident took place, such an angle should be probed further,” Justice Kureshi said.
Advocate-General pulled up
In another development, the High Court has pulled up Advocate-General Kamal Trivedi for the State government's failure to file an affidavit explaining its stand on the demand for a CBI investigation into the alleged fake encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan.
Though Mr. Trivedi had submitted before a Division Bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari that the government was opposed to handing over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation, he was told to file an affidavit. But the government failed to do so within the stipulated period. Now it has promised to file an affidavit in a day or two.
The court has also wanted to know from the government whether it would agree to the reconstitution of the Special Investigation Team by taking in some officials of the Central investigating agencies.
The demand for a CBI inquiry was made separately by Shamima Kausar, mother of Ishrat Jahan, and Gopinath Pillai, father of Pranesh Pillai alias Javed Sheikh, who was also among those killed with Ishrat. The petitioners claimed that they did not expect the investigation by the Gujarat police to be impartial.
