The Supreme Court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Wednesday defended its investigations and opposed the protest petition filed by riot victim Zakia Jafri against its closure report that gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 61 others for their alleged involvement in the 2002 riots.
The SIT counsel R.S. Jamuar asserted at a local magistrate’s court that the way the petition had been drafted “suggested that it is nothing but a piece of wastepaper.” He called it fiction and alleged that a few persons had drafted it and the complainant Zakia had no knowledge about its contents.
Mr. Jamuar claimed that the complainant had presented no case or evidence but extracted the material submitted before Justice (retired) G.T. Nanavati-Akshay Mehta Commission. The “complainant has extracted most of the material submitted, examined and cross-examined by a commission of inquiry, Justice Nanavati Commission, which is still functioning and is yet to submit its final report,” counsel stated.
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Mr. Jamuar further argued that, “no courts, either civil or criminal, is binding to the report of any panel set up under the Commission of Inquiry Act and here the complainant has drafted her whole complaint based on the material from the Commission.”
He pointed out that the petition tried to add new facts and evidence which had never been investigated and had been picked up from the depositions made before the Nanavati Commission. Ms. Zakia is widow of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulberg Society massacre in Ahmedabad during the 2002 riots.