In another significant step towards assuring the Gujarat riot victims that it won’t accept either justice delayed or justice denied, the Supreme Court today, just as it did in the Bilkis Rasool case, turned its attention to over 2,000 other such cases closed by the Gujarat police claiming that the accused could not be traced. A bench, headed by Justice Ruma Pal, directed the Gujarat Government to set up a 10-member high-level police team under the Director General of Police to review those cases in which they had filed final reports or closure reports instead of chargesheets. The bench passed this far-reaching order on applications filed by amicus curiae Harish Salve who said that of the 4,252 cases registered by the police in the post-Godhra riots, about half of them were closed by them as ‘‘untraced.’’ Turning the tables on the police, Salve proposed that a committee consisting of top officials from the same department be set up to consider the grievances of riot victims and determine in each case whether ‘‘fresh investigation was required.’’ Accepting Salve’s suggestion, the bench said the ‘‘unprecedented and abnormal’’ situation in Gujarat brooked no delay and directed the DGP to report the progress of the committee’s review every three months. If the committee’s brief is to revive cases like that of Bilkis Rasool, the apex court has not overlooked cases like that of Best Bakery either. What his Govt now cannot say No to
