The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Maharashtra government on a petition alleging that certain police officials indicted by the Srikrishna Commission for their alleged role in the 1993 Mumbai riots have been promoted instead of being prosecuted.

A bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice A R Lakshmanan, while issuing a notice on the petition filed by advocate Shakeel Ahmed, asked the state government to give details of the developments on the issue since the submission of the action taken report by the then Shiv Sena government in 2000.

The petitions seeking implementation of the Srikrishna Commission report were filed by several organisations alleging that the Sena government was doing a white wash job.

Appearing for the state, senior advocate Ashok Desai said the present government had referred the report to the Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department for further action and had set up a special task force to take appropriate steps for prosecution of those held guilty by the Commission.

He said the proceedings before the Court should come to an end as the state had taken steps required under the law.

Counsel Anis Suhrawardy, Y H Muchchala and Cecil Gonsalves, however, stated that several persons went missing during the riots and the police have done nothing to trace them.

The bench asked the Maharashtra government and the Union government to file their responses within six weeks.