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SC issues notice to Gujarat on riot cases
July 12, 2004 17:49 IST
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Gujarat Government on an application alleging that it had suppressed facts pertaining to grant of bail to the accused in various post-Godhra riot cases.
The state government was asked to file its response within two weeks by a bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia when amicus curiae Harish Salve accused the government of "misleading" the court about the status of the accused in ten riot cases in which trial has been stayed by the Supreme Court.
When the court took up petitions, including the one filed by National Human Rights Commission for hearing, Salve stated that though most of the accused have been granted bail by the high court, the state had told him that the bail applications have been rejected by the sessions court.
However, appearing for the state, senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi termed the allegations as baseless and said the state had never mislead the Court.
Salve wanted to know as to how the lapse on the part of the state occurred and as to which was the officer responsible for this.
Rohtagi stated that the state had opposed all the bail applications before the trial court and 95 per cent of them have been rejected.