Supreme Court directs Modi Govt. to probe Godhra riot cases
MIL/TNN/Agenciess, Mar 27, 2008.
New Delhi,India: March 27, 2000 – The Supreme Court of India has given directions to Narendra Modi Govt. on Wednesday to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) within ten days to probe the Godhra riot cases. The Apex Court also directed that the SIT shall be headed by the former Director RK Raghavan.
The investigation is to be completed within 3 months and the report to be submitted to the Hon.’ble court.
A bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat, Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Aftab Alam said, the SIT "shall inquire, investigate/further investigate into these cases".
It shall 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.
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.
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