New Delhi: The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a plea seeking a fresh probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The top court was hearing Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging the clean chit given by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other high officials.
Zakia Jafri, the widow of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed during the violence, told the apex court on Wednesday that she had not tried to “implicate” the then chief minister of the state.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Zakia Jafri, told a three-judge apex court bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar that he has not argued at all about any alleged involvement of the former chief minister, adding that They are on the issue of a bigger conspiracy. SIT did not investigate
Responding to a petition opposing the SIT’s clean chit to 63 people, including the then chief minister, the Gujarat government on Tuesday told the top court that ordering further probe into an alleged larger conspiracy behind the 2002 riots would amount to a sedition. . of Justice.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SIT, had earlier this month told the apex court that there was no major conspiracy behind the Gujarat riots.
He said, “There is no need to boil this pot… Your possession should be stopped.”
Ehsan Jafri was among 68 people killed in the violence a day after the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express caught fire in Godhra and a day after instigating riots in Gujarat.
Earlier on February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Narendra Modi, now the prime minister, and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was “no prosecutable evidence” against them. Was.
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.
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