Gujarat Riots: Court stays order on SIT report till Feb 15

The trial court in Ahmedabad looking into Zakia Jafri’s plea seeking Special Investigation Team’s report on post-Godhra riots of 2002, stayed its order till 15 February 2012. The court will pronounce its verdict on whether Zakia Jafri, Teesta Setalvad and Mukul Sinha are entitled to a copy of SIT’s report. The SIT counsel the SIT claimed that Setalvad and Sinha have no locus to demand a copy of the judgement as they are not the aggrieved in the case. [caption id=“attachment_211624” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“PTI”]  [/caption] The counsel for Setalvad and Sinha countered the SIT’s arguments by claiming that being a public document, the report has to be made public. The report, it is claimed, deals with all the cases investigated by the SIT, which include charges against chief minister and over 50 individuals responsible for killing innocents in the post-Godhra riots. Charges against Modi say that he allowed the dead bodies of karsewaks killed in the Sabarmati express in Godhra to be brought to Ahmedabad, that he deliberately delayed action and called the army too late. It is also alleged that he knew about the threat to life of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri but didn’t take any action, among others. The SIT argued that the report—widely surmised to be a closure document on the Gublerg Society massacre—need not be made public to rights groups at the moment and that the court could decide on that later. The probe panel also said it needs more time to make the final report. Meanwhile, it is still not clear whether the report filed by SIT gives a clean chit to Modi. The court is yet to examine the report. Earlier in the day, Narendra Modi sounded confident and tweeted Swami Vivekanda’s words: “I stand for truth. Truth will never ally itself with falsehood.” Media reported last week that the SIT has given a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi over his role in the 2002 riots that claimed over 1,044 lives. The Supreme Court had asked the SIT to investigate whether the chief minister failed in his responsibilities and whether there was a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 riots. The Supreme Court had then asked amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran to independently assess the SIT report. The Supreme Court on 12 September 2011, after going through Ramachandran’s report, had refrained from passing any order in the case and asked the SIT to submit its final report in the magisterial court in Ahmedabad. The SIT almost took five months after the Supreme Court order to file its final report in the case. The Supreme Court had asked the magisterial court to hear the petitioners before closure summary in the case, even if the report was in favour of Modi and others.