'Infructuous': Supreme Court closes pending Gujarat riots cases

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday closed pending cases pertaining to the 2002 Gujarat riots for which it had formed an SIT under CBI ex-director RK Raghavan.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SIT, informed the court that trials in eight of the nine cases have been completed and hearing in the Naroda Patiya case is at an advanced stage and final arguments are being made in the trial court. "Since all the matters have become infructuous, this court need not entertain any application. Trial in the Naroda Patiya case be taken to its logical conclusion as per law," the bench said, wrapping up the cases it had been hearing for the past two decades.

Appearing before a bench of CJI U U Lalit and Justices S Ravindra Bhat and J B Pardiwala, Rohatgi said that the SC order passed on the NHRC petition for conducting probe and prosecution in the nine cases have been complied with and nothing survives in them. He also submitted that the apex court had passed an order in 2018 in which it was observed that the purpose of the petitions of the NHRC and of others had been served and the cases could be disposed of.

The SIT was also given the task to probe the "larger conspiracy" in the 2002 riots. That issue has also now attained finality with the Supreme Court in June upholding the SIT's findings, giving a clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and other state functionaries.