26, Mar 2008

The Supreme Court noted that the cases of Godhra, Gulberg Society, Naroda Patiya, Naroda Gaon, Sardarpura, Ode, Dipda Darwaza, needed to be re-investigated. The court based its findings on the counsel for both parties and the note of the Amicus Curiae and the judgement held that the considerations that the lack of investigation and the trial had similar charecteristics to the findings of the Best Bakery Case(Zahira Sheikh vs State of Gujarat). In this case, the trial was shifted out of Gujarat due to the hostile atmosphere and inability to decree proper justice. In the current case, the Court recommended a formation of a special investigation team (SIT) on the basis of unprecedented scale and magnitude of offences, nature and status of alleged officers and on an appreciation of ground reality.

In this application, the petitioners (CJP) had requested that the appointments of officers to the SIT should be of the Survivors choice. This was not granted by the Supreme Court. The list of initially appointed members is below, but the SIT was given full control to appoint officers of varying ranks to its team.

1. Mr.Raghavan, Former Director of the CBI;
2. Mr.C.B.Satpathy;
3. Rajnish Kumar Rai (1992, IPS);
4. Dr.Neerja Gotru Rao (1993, IPS);
5. A.K.Singh (1985, IPS
Further Details can be found here

Credit: Sabrangindia https://sabrangindia.in/indepth/gulberg-massacre-tortuous-journey-justice