Key prosecutors quit Godhra riots case
By IANSTuesday, March 2, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - Two key public prosecutors in a 2002 arson case of the Gujarat riots, in which Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri lost his life with many others, Tuesday submitted their resignations to the Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT), one of them said.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Naina Bhatt told IANS that she and Special Public Prosecutor R.K. Shah have resigned.
She said she was not very comfortable with the way things were going.
As many as 69 people lost their lives in the communal riots at Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad Feb 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra railway station train coach burning incident in which 58 people lost their lives.
After the victims failed to get justice at the hands of the Gujarat police, the Supreme Court intervened to hand over investigations to the SIT as it was one of the nine most heinous cases of riots in the 2002 Gujarat communal conflagration.
SIT chief R.K. Raghavan did not comment on the resignations of the public prosecutors.
Teesta Setalvad of non-governmental organisation, Citizens for Justice and Peace, and some of the affected people had approached the apex court for reconstitution of the SIT and the matter is slated to be heard March 15.
