In a ray of hope to Delhi anti-Sikh riot victims of 1984, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed two former Supreme Court judges to scrutinize over 241 riots cases where investigation had stopped pursuant to closure reports being filed in the trial courts on orders passed by a special investigation team (SIT) dealing with a total of 293 riot cases.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra, Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar fixed a deadline of three months for the two-judge Supervisory Committee to come to a conclusion and submit its findings to Court. The matter has been posted for further hearing on November 28.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who represented the Centre informed the Bench that it had no objection if the said Committee examined the closed cases as he objected to scrutiny of cases where investigation is ongoing. He informed the Court that out of 293 cases investigated by the SIT, closure reports were filed in 241. Nine cases are under investigation by the SIT while two cases are pending probe with the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The SIT is headed by Pramod Asthana, an IPS officer of 1986 batch, and comprises Rakesh Kapoor, a retired district and sessions judge and Kumar Gyanesh, an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Delhi Police.