The Special Investigation Team headed by the former CBI Director, R.K. Raghavan, on Monday submitted its second report to the Supreme Court on the probe into the complaint by Zakia Jaffrey, wife of the slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey, in the Gulberg Society massacre case against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others.
Informed sources told The Hindu that the report was submitted to the Registry in a sealed cover. The report assumes significance in the context of a senior Gujarat police officer, Sanjiv Rajendra Bhatt, filing an affidavit alleging that Mr. Modi gave instructions for orchestrating violence to ‘teach a lesson' to Muslims.
No evidence to corroborate claim
The sources said there was enough evidence to suggest that Mr. Bhatt was not present at the February 27, 2002 meeting convened by Mr. Modi. The SIT, after examination of several witnesses, found that there was no evidence to corroborate Mr. Bhatt's claim that he attended the meeting. The sources said it was an after-thought and belated attempt on the part of Mr. Bhatt to make such a claim after so many years.
It is learnt the SIT has dealt with Mr. Bhatt's affidavit in its own way. The sources, however, refused to divulge the conclusions in the report.
On March 15, the court noted that the SIT's conclusions in its first report on the probe against Mr. Modi and 62 others did not match with various findings and asked the SIT to examine the observations of the amicus curiae and consider conducting a further investigation.
The SIT submitted its first report in May 2010. The court will consider the second report on April 27.
