Senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to order a probe against the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that gave a clean chit to then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal riots, asserting that it had rendered conclusions contrary to facts.
He was appearing for Zakia Jafri, widow of slain former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. He asserted that the SIT did not conduct an 'investigation' but did a 'collaborative exercise' and its probe was fraught with omissions to protect conspirators.
"The SIT was rendering conclusions contrary to facts they were aware of. In fact, SIT should be investigated. It is true...I am not concerned with individuals. I am concerned with the process. I am only saying SIT did not do its job. It was an act of protection. It did a collaborative exercise," he submitted.
Sibal said that there was evidence in the form of electronic records, including call data records of senior police officials and mobs identifying houses of Muslims, all of which pointed towards conspiracy. But the SIT ignored all of it and did not conduct any further investigation, he said.
The Magistrate and Gujarat High Court had accepted the closure report filed by SIT prompting the present appeal before the Supreme Court, Sibal said noting how the officials of SIT as well as police were rewarded handsomely.
"All those who collaborated were rehabilitated in a big way. RK Raghavan who headed SIT was made High Commissioner of Cyprus," he said.
He also elaborated on the call data records (CDR) of then Ahmedabad Police Commissioner PC Pandey which showed he was conversing with the accused.
"SIT says Pandey was handling dead bodies of Godhra victims but call data records show he was sitting in office whole day long. Is it his job to handle dead bodies? If he was so concerned would he have allowed the bodies to be brought by road from Godhra to Ahmedabad and allowed passions to flare up. PC Pandey was one of the worst collaborators. He later became DGP of Gujarat. The journey from accused to DGP is disconcerting," Sibal submitted.
Sibal also claimed that there were statements by people belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Rashtria Swayamsevak Sangh claiming that public prosecutors were acting at their behest. He also drew parallels between the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and the massacre of the Muslims in the Gujarat riots.
The Supreme Court had, in 2008, appointed the SIT to submit a report on a number of trials in Gujarat riots and subsequently also ordered the SIT to investigate the complaint that was filed by the petitioner.
In 2011, the SIT was directed by the Supreme Court to submit its closure report before the concerned Magistrate, and Jafri was given the liberty to file her objections, if any, to the said report.
In 2013, after the petitioner was handed a copy of the same, she filed a petition opposing the closure report, which essentially gave a clean chit to several bureaucrats and politicians, including Narendra Modi.
source https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/gujarat-riots-kapil-sibal-urges-sc-to-probe-sits-role-in-2002-communal-riots
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