India's highest court on Tuesday asked the government of western Gujarat state to reopen about 2,000 cases related to deadly Hindu-Muslim riots, which were closed by police on grounds the suspects could not be found.
The order is a fresh blow to the Hindu nationalist state government, which was accused of not preventing the worst religious riots in a decade and of turning a blind eye to the killing of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, by Hindu mobs.
The 2,000 cases were among a total of 4,252 cases of rioting registered by state police during the violence two years ago.
The Supreme Court asked the state to form a 10-member team of top police officers to take a fresh look at the cases that were closed on grounds that the accused could not be traced, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The team would need to decide whether a fresh investigation was needed in each case, PTI reported the court as saying.
"What happened in the state was unprecedented and abnormal," the court said, and asked the state's police chief to make progress reports to it every three months.
The court has closely monitored the investigation of riot cases in Gujarat and regularly pressured state authorities to ensure victims a fair trial.
The court this month transferred a controversial case - that of a pregnant Muslim woman who was gang raped as she tried to flee a Hindu mob - outside the state following pleas that a fair trial was impossible in Gujarat.