The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Special Investigation Team (SIT) chief R K Raghavan and another SIT member K Venkatesam to be relieved from their duties with regard to probing the 2002 Gujarat riots cases.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court (SC) allowed RK Raghavan, chief of the apex court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe 2002 Gujarat riots cases, to be relieved as the head of the team. However, Raghavan says he will never retire. “Retirement is never on the cards, though I don’t know what I am going to do tomorrow,” he said speaking to DNA. The 76-year-old former IPS officer said he will keep busy with reading, swimming, and tennis. “I also plan to write more, now that I have free time,” Raghavan said. Along with him, K Venkatesam, who was appointed as Commissioner of Nagpur Police has also been relieved from the SIT.
AK Malhotra, the lone surviving member will continue to hold the candle and file quarterly reports on the investigation as directed by the SC. “No new members will be inducted in this team at the moment,” senior advocate Harish Salve said speaking to DNA.
The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar along with Justices DY Chandrachud and SK Kaul who considered the submission made by Salve, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae.
Appreciating the work done so far, the bench allowed Salve’s request while asking Malhotra to oversee the functioning of the probe team.
The SIT was tasked with investigating nine major post-Godhra riots cases, including the Naroda Gam riots case pertaining to the killing of eleven members of a minority community. The killings took place during a bandh called to protest the Godhra train burning incident for which 82 people are facing trial.
In September 2016, the apex court had granted a lower court in Gujarat six months to conclude trial in the 2002 Naroda Gam riots case. Salve and Raghavan had also sought time saying the trial court had to examine nearly 300 witnesses.
The SIT had earlier informed the apex court that investigation had been completed in the other eight remaining cases. The trial courts have pronounced the judgments and the cases are at the stage of appeal in the High Court.
Pursuant to the investigation, in June 2016, fourteen years after a mob of at least 5,000 massacred 69 people, including former Congress legislator Ehsaan Jafri in Gulbarg society, a posh area largely housing the minority community in Ahmadabad, a trial court in Gujarat convicted 24 and acquitted 36.
After the National Human Rights Commission and various NGOs termed the investigation into these as shoddy and unreliable, the apex court stepped in to monitor the investigation in nine sensitive cases. The cases were related to communal riots that broke out in different parts of Gujarat, including Gulberg Society, Ode, Sardarpura, Naroda Gam, Naroda Patiya, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada, and Raghavapura.
An estimated 2,000 people were killed in post-Godhra riots in 2002.
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