Gujarat riots: Court to hear SIT report today

A local court will hear the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team on Monday.

The court of Metropolitan Magistrate M.S. Bhatt will also hear the petitions filed by social activists Teesta Setalvad and Mukul Sinha seeking copies of the report filed in a sealed cover before it on Wednesday.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the SIT to investigate whether there was a larger conspiracy behind the 2002 riots in which more than 1,200 people were killed.

A complaint in this regard was filed by Ms. Setalvad and Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, in the Gulberg Society case where 69 people were killed during the communal frenzy in 2002.

The SIT after questioning many people, including Mr. Modi, had filed a report in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had then asked

amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran to independently assess the SIT report.

Mr. Ramchandran during his visit to Gujarat interacted with several persons as well as witnesses and then submitted his report to the Supreme Court.

The SIT and Mr. Ramchandran also met suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who in his affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, had said that Mr. Modi in a meeting held at his residence on February 27, 2002 asked the State police officials to “allow Hindus to vent their anger” after 59 people, most of them Karsevaks, were killed in the Godhra train burning incident.

The Supreme Court had refused to take Mr. Bhatt’s affidavit on record.

The Supreme Court on September 12, 2011, after going through Mr. 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.

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 Mr. Modi and others.

The petitioners will have right to challenge the decision of the local court on the report in the High Court and then Supreme Court.

The court will also have to provide all the reports and documents submitted by the SIT to Ms. Zakia Jafri before hearing her in case the SIT not finding any grounds to prosecute Mr. Modi or others.