A petition on behalf of the victims of Naroda Patiya riots of 2002 has been filed in the Gujarat high court, seeking direction to the Special Investigation Team to file a report on investigation into the "larger conspiracy".
Petitioner Amrish Patel demanded that SIT should be directed to submit either a closure report, or a chargesheet on the "larger conspiracy and connivance of the police".
"In the first application, filed in the sessions court, we demanded that SIT should investigate the aspect of the alleged involvement of some of the officers in chief minister's office, then Minister of State for Home Gordhan Zadafia, some police officers and ex-MLA Maya Kodnani as reflected through the analysis of the telephone call data collected by IPS officer Rahul Sharma," said advocate Mukul Sinha, Patel's lawyer.
But this application, filed in September 2009, was rejected by the then trial court judge Jyotsna Yagnik on the grounds that the prayer was not required to be entertained at that stage. Later applications in 2010 too were rejected.
"But when we again filed the application, court, on December 3, 2011, directed SIT to forward final report to the court but since then SIT has not complied with that order," said Sinha.
"In our petition in the high court we have prayed that direction be given to SIT either to file a closure report or a chargesheet," he said.
On Friday, Justice K M Thakar asked the petitioner to submit all the judgements and orders of the apex court in relation to all riot cases of 2002 in which investigation was assigned to the SIT.
During the post-Godhra riots of 2002, 97 people of the minority community were killed in Naroda Patiya area. In August 2012 trial court convicted 32 and acquitted 29 accused.
All the convicts, including former MLA Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi were awarded life imprisonments and their appeals are pending before the high court.