The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would like to see the closure report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), in which 64 people have been given clean chit. Narendra Modi Who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat during the 2002 riots in the state, and the magisterial court accepted it and justified it. A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar began hearing the plea of Zakia Jafri, wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, challenging the clean chit of the SIT along with her lawyer Kapil Sibal, We have nothing to do with high dignitaries Is. Nothing political. We are on law and order and rights of an individual.
The senior counsel said that at present he did not want to convict the people named in Jafri’s complaint and his case was that there was a larger conspiracy to incite bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speech and violence. When Sibal was making the submission, the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, said that we would like to see the justification given in the closure report (of the SIT). We would like to see the Magistrate’s order and his reasoning in accepting the report.
The senior advocate cited the orders of the apex court, reports by the SIT and amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran to say that the clean chit and subsequent acceptance by the lower courts was not limited to the Gulbarg Society case in which Ehsan Jafri was among 68 persons. He was killed in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. We have tried to show the court that the report of the SIT was not limited to the Gulberg Society massacre and even the complaint of Zakia Jafri and the closure report was not limited to just one case, Sibal said, in the lower courts. declined to consider the material.
What happens to the concept of rule of law, what happens to all the material if we restrict it to Gulberg only. He said the republic rises or falls depending on what the court does. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the original complaint was filed by Zakia Jafri, who lived in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad.
Initially, Sibal referred to the list of dates in the case starting with the 2002 riots in Gujarat and said that the petitioner had lodged a complaint with the Director General of Police (DGP) that before the horrific tragedy, there were certain aspects that led to communal violence. provoked. He said that the SIT is already confiscating many facts, but did not consider it while filing the closure report.
Sibal said the evidence is part of the record and in addition a sting operation was conducted by a journalist. If you look at this, you will be surprised. He said that this sting operation was not noticed.
He said that there is evidence that needs to be taken into account to ascertain whether a crime was committed and the evidence pertains to the fact that the police was not taking action, hate speeches were made and false information was given to the people. Went. Referring to Section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which deals with cognizance of offences, he said that when the court is made aware of certain facts and information, the magistrate is bound to take cognizance of the offenses committed. constitutes the commission.
The lawyer said that he was concerned with a complaint arising out of the closure report of the SIT which already contained many facts. Sibal said the magistrate court said it would not look into anything else and would only deal with the limited complaint filed by Zakia Jafri in the Gulberg Society case.
The material collected by the SIT did not pertain to Gulberg alone. The issue was not that only Gulberg was to be considered, our protest petition, all the material was to be seen, he said, adding that the statements of the witnesses pertained to the whole of Gujarat and not to one case. The bench will resume hearing through virtual mode on Wednesday.
Former MP Ehsan Jafri was among 68 people killed in the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after 59 people were killed in the S-6 coach of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra and a day after instigating riots in Gujarat. On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving 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 petition also said that after the SIT had given a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition, which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering the “certified merits”.
It also said that the High Court had “failed to appreciate” the petitioner’s complaint which was independent of the Gulberg Society case registered at a police station in Ahmedabad. The High Court in its October 2017 order had said that the SIT probe is supervised by the Supreme Court. However, it partly allowed Zakia Jafri’s plea, so far as her demand for further investigation was concerned.
It had said that the petitioner can approach the Magistrate’s court, a division bench of the High Court or an appropriate forum including the Supreme Court for further investigation.
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