SC Agrees with Replacement of Lawyers in Post-Godhra Riots Case
The Supreme Court has agreed with the ‘replacement’ of two public prosecutors in the post-Godhra riots trails and has appointed a serving SIT member to ‘scrutinise’ police records in order to verify allegations of lapse raised by civil rights activists, said media reports.
In addition, the apex court restrained trial courts to not announce any verdict on the pending riots cases till a final decision is taken by the bench in the regard on August 6, 2010, reports said.
The bench appointed Ashok Kumar Malhotra, a serving SIT member and a former DIG with the CBI, for scrutinizing the police records, said reports.
He was voted for the task because of his background as a ‘direct recruit’ to the CBI and not a part of the Gujarat IPS cadre.
Malhotra will scrutinize against the Gujarat police officers as well as also take a ‘re-look’ into allegations on the functioning of the SIT, reports said.
However, the court order triggered protest form the Gujarat government, which asked, “How the honourable court can order a re-look by a SIT member into the working of the SIT?”
Gujarat counsel Mukul Rohatgi asked the court whether Malhotra’s brief to ‘examine what his chairman was saying would make him one over the chairman?’, said reports.
A three-judge special Bench of Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam replied to these queries by maintaining that Malhotra will only ‘look into what the SIT has already done’, said reports.
(Based on internet reports)
