Gulbarg society riot victims move court, want speedy trial

The victims and witnesses in the Gulbarg society riot case approached the special court here today seeking a speedy trial, and accused the Supreme Court appointed special investigation team of delaying the proceedings.
Saira Sandhi, Salim Sandhi, Rupa Mody and Firoz Gulzar Pathan filed the application before the special SIT court, alleging that SIT officials were intentionally delaying the probe, and consequently the trial.
"SIT officials did not cooperate with special prosecutor R K Shah, who used to work sincerely to get justice for victims. The harassment on the part of the officials made him quit the case," the application said.

"SIT has opposed the pleas filed by us to arraign policemen P C Pande, M K Tandon, P B Gondia and first investigator S S Chudasama as accused in this case.
"On May 23, 2012 it moved the Gujarat High Court against the special court's order asking SIT to place entire report, prepared on Zakia Jafri's allegations against (Narendra) Modi and others in connection with the 2002 riots," it said.
"But without any reason, SIT withdrew its petition on February 19. This has delayed the proceedings by 19 months," the application said.
The special judge K K Bhatt directed the SIT to reply next week.

On February 28, 2002, a mob attacked Gulburg Society here, killing 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, as the post-Godhra violence engulfed the state.