NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court set up a new three-member special investigation team on Thursday headed by former Delhi high court judge Shiv Narayan Dhingra to probe 186 anti-Sikh riot cases.A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud accepted the names suggested by the home ministry and appointed retired IPS officer Rajdeep Singh and serving IPS officer Abhishek Dular as the other members of the SIT.At the request of additional solicitor general Pinky Anand , the bench recorded that the appointment of a new SIT was not a reflection on the previous SIT, which was set up in 2015 and was tasked with further investigation of 291 cases. The bench asked the new SIT to submit a status report by March 19 on further probe into 186 cases, which the earlier SIT had said were not probed further.The appointment of Justice Dhingra as chairman of the new SIT is significant as he had conducted trials in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots cases in the 1990s as an additional sessions judge in Karkardooma court in east Delhi. His tough approach towards the accused, including H K L Bhagat, had made the former Union minister rush to the Delhi high court in 1996, seeking transfer of the two cases against him to some other court. The HC had rejected Bhagat's plea. Dhingra had refused bail to Bhagat, entailing his incarceration.On August 16 last year, the SC had set up a supervisory body of two former SC judges - S Radhakrishnan and J M Panchal - and asked it to "scrutinise 241 matters which have been closed and express their view whether there was justification to close the cases".The two judges analysed the investigations carried out in the cases up by the NDA-appointed SIT and reported to a bench that 186 cases were not investigated further. On Wednesday, the bench had said, "Regard being had to the nature of the case, we think it appropriate that a fresh SIT should be constituted for carrying on further investigation."The court had entertained S Gurlad Singh Kahlon's petition on November 15, 2016, and in January last year sought a comprehensive report from the government on the steps taken by the SIT set up by the NDA government. In December last year, the bench had said, "It is an extremely important matter as we have to determine whether the SIT's decision to close the cases was appropriate or not. The supervisory committee had earlier opined that the cases may have been time barred for launching of fresh prosecution. Let us see if there is any substance in the facts mentioned in the case files. If we find substance, we will order prosecution."The petitioner had alleged that the SIT had scrutinised 291 cases and closed 199 after scrutiny. It was alleged that 42 more cases were closed after conducting preliminary inquiries. The main challenge before the SIT was tracing witnesses willing to depose in these cases after a lapse of 34 years.