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New Delhi: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) told the Supreme Court that there was no material to substantiate the claims of any major conspiracy in the 2002 Gujarat riots and kept the pot on boil, behind the allegation that the violence was state-sponsored There were frightening signs. on Wednesday.
The SIT told a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar that the complaint filed by Zakia Jafri alleging larger conspiracy in the riots was not converted into an FIR and the apex court directed the SIT to look into it and act in accordance with law. told to
Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, who was killed during the violence at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, has challenged the SIT’s clean chit to 64 people, including the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, during the riots. ,
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SIT, told the bench that a protest petition of about 1,200 pages was filed by Zakia Jafri and was asked to treat it as a complaint.
Now after 20 years consider it a complaint. Why? You want to keep it as a boiling pot or what? It also shows frightening signs, to keep a pot on boiling. Why would someone keep the pot boiling? Because there is something else, Rohatgi told the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar.
So it is saying state sponsored, look at this, look at this, look at the high level. Because the idea is to keep the pot boiling, he told the bench.
He argued that the top court had asked the SIT to look into Zakia Jafri’s complaint as it had recognized the pain of a widow.
He said Teesta Setalvad, who is petitioner number two in the petition filed by Zakia Jafri in the apex court, had attended the proceedings before the high court.
And indeed, your lordship will be materialized, that many people already come to the SIT with prepared statements. He said the SIT recorded his statements and he said that these pre-prepared statements, which he has signed, are dictations of petitioner number two Teesta Setalvad, he said.
When Rohatgi mentioned the allegations, the bench said, the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) had not recorded a finding that it was a state-sponsored riot.
Absolutely not, said the senior advocate.
Rohatgi, who referred to the trial court’s decision in the Gulberg case, said, “After all the deliberations, there is a clear conclusion that there is no material to show that there is a larger conspiracy.”
On the allegations that a VHP accomplice had made weapons before the Godhra train incident on February 27, 2002, he said it was absurd as it would mean that they knew that some untoward incident would happen on that day.
During the debate, which will continue on Thursday, Rohatgi said riots happen at one place because the state administration is run by a mob.
He said Gujarat violence can be a case of negligence or dereliction of duty, but cannot be a case of conspiracy between political parties, police and others.
The argument of the other side is that it is for the court to decide whether the evidence is admissible or not. The bench said that the SIT will have to produce it in the court along with the police report.
Rohatgi said the SIT probed, recorded the statements and came to a conclusion.
There is no difficulty in reaching the conclusion you are entitled to. But it will have to be placed before the court, the bench said.
Rohatgi said that the SIT has placed the entire material before the court.
If there is something wrong with the court’s decision, it can be remedied by the legal system. He said that if the court finds something wrong, something right, it is redressable by the court in a hierarchy.
Rohatgi said that the trial court as well as the high court have spent so many hours on the issues raised by Zakia Jafri and it cannot be said that there was no application of mind by the lower courts.
Is there any empirical data to show how many hours or days have been spent in investigation by this SIT. Is any data immediately available, the bench asked.
Rohatgi, who said he would have to look into it, told the bench that the protest petition and the closure report filed by the SIT were largely disposed of by the trial court and the matter was heard from April 15, 2013 and orders were passed in December 2013. it was done. ,
Zakia Jafri’s lawyer had earlier argued that her 2006 complaint was a larger conspiracy where bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speech and violence were perpetrated.
Former MP Ehsan Jafri was among 68 people killed in the violence that took place a day after the Godhra train incident.
On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi, now the prime minister, and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was “no prosecutable evidence” against them.
Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order dismissing her plea against the SIT’s decision.
The High Court, in its October 2017 order, had said that the SIT probe is supervised by the Supreme Court.
However, it partly allowed his petition, so far as the demand for further inquiry was concerned, stating that he may seek further inquiry from a Magistrate’s Court, a Division Bench of the High Court, or an appropriate forum including the Supreme Court. can demand.
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