The Supreme Court today allowed R K Raghavan, who was heading the apex-court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe 2002 Gujarat riots cases, to be relieved from the duty of heading the team. A bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices D Y Chandrachud and S K Kaul considered the submission of senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, that Raghavan be relieved from the duty of heading the SIT.


The bench hailed the work done so far by the SIT and allowed the request of Salve while asking A K Malhotra, another member of SIT, to oversee the functioning of the probe team. It also relieved another member K Venkatesam from the SIT and asked Malhotra to continue filing quarterly status report about the progress in the riots cases in the apex court.


The top court-appointed SIT has been probing nine major post-Godhra riots cases including the Naroda Gam riots case pertaining to the killing of eleven members of a community.