The spectre of communal violence in the aftermath of the Godhra incident continued to haunt the Narendra Modi Government with the Supreme Court constituting a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to re-investigate certain specified cases. A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam said the SIT would submit its report within three months.

The apex court passed the order on a bunch of petitions filed by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and a host of individuals/NGOs seeking probe by an independent investigating agency and transferring the trial outside Gujarat on the ground that the local police connived with the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

There are about 14 cases referred by the petitioners wherein it was alleged that witnesses were intimidated or the local police acting at the behest of perpetrators refused to record their statements.

In 2003, the NHRC had filed the petition for transfer of the cases and trial expressing fears that it would not be conducted in a fair and transparent manner due to the hostile environment encountered by the witnesses, most of whom had turned hostile due to alleged threats and inducements.

On the basis of the petitions, the apex court had in 2005 stayed the investigations in these cases.

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