New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today declined to reconstitute the Special Investigation Team, or the SIT, set up to probe the Gujarat riot cases.
"Reconstruction of the SIT at this stage is not good,'' a bench headed by Justice H L Dattu said in response to a petition.
Advocate Fathima A had earlier approached the court, pleading that the SIT be revamped. She took refuge behind media reports which suggested that Gujarat Chief Minister
Narendra Modi had been absolved of his alleged role in the riots that tore through the state in early 2002, and wanted the court to issue a clarification.
The Supreme Court, however, refused to order an SIT overhaul, and asked the petitioner to approach the appropriate forum. The petitioner, at this stage, withdrew her petition.
After examining the status report filed by the SIT on the progress made by it in investigating the cases relating to the riots, the Supreme Court had on April 3 expressed its satisfaction. "A lot of progress has been achieved. The report says out of nine cases monitored by the court, investigation in six cases is over, resulting in conviction. And the rest of the three cases are in the final stages,'' the court noted.
The SIT was set up by the Supreme Court under former CBI chief RK Raghavan in 2008. It periodically submits status reports to the court, which is monitoring the investigation.
One of the three cases still in court is the Gulbarg Society massacre, in which 68 people, including a former Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri, were killed by a mob in a residential complex in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. His widow, Zakiya, later filed a petition demanding a Supreme Court-monitored probe.
Last December, in huge relief for Mr Modi, who is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, a metropolitan court in Ahmedabad accepted the clean chit given by the SIT to the Gujarat chief minister, rejecting Ms Jafri's petition challenging the SIT's closure report.