The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted R K Raghavan, who was heading its Special Investigation Team to probe the 2002 Gujarat riots, to disassociate from the responsibility.

It also relieved another SIT member, K Venkatesam, who has now been appointed as the police commissioner of Nagpur.

Recording its appreciation on their role, the court asked the third member A K Malhotra to continue filing quarterly status reports about the progress in the riot cases in the apex court.

The bench passed its order on a submission by senior advocate Harish Salve, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, that Raghavan and Venkatesam be relieved from their duties since trial in eight out of nine riot cases had been concluded.‘Shoddy and unreliable’

The court has been monitoring nine sensitive cases after the National Human Rights Commission and several NGOs termed the investigation into them “shoddy and unreliable”.