NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 25 The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) special rapporteur in Gujarat has complained that teams working to uncover state police lapses during the post-Godhra riots are under threat and this has prompted amicus curiae Harish Salve to suggest to the Supreme Court that Central protection be provided to both witnesses and victims in riot cases.

Raising this issue today during the Supreme Court hearing on the Bilkis Yakub Rasool rape case — the plight of Bilkis, raped when she was five months pregnant while 14 of her family were murdered, was first highlighted by The Indian Express — Salve suggested that a force like the CRPF be entrusted the task of protecting victims and witnesses alike.

Salve’s request had its genesis in a complaint received by National Human Rights Commission from its special rapporteur P G J Nampoothiri.

The rapporteur’s complaint noted how even members of a special team constituted by the Gujarat government to probe massacres in the Panchmahals district were under threat. The letter cited the case of Neerja Gotru, head of the special team appointed by the Gujarat Home department. She highlighted how the police in the Panchmahals’ Kalol failed to register some serious cases of mass murder. It was on her intervention that two police cases were registered. Nampoothiri’s letter to the NHRC states: ‘‘Influential leaders of the Panchmahals, apprehending arrests and prosecution of their henchmen, have made representations to the government seeking action against those who had helped Ms Neerja’s team in identifying victims/witnesses.’’