Those who abused should be in the dock: SC's stinging observations in Gujarat riots case

New Delhi, Jun 24: The Supreme Court while rejecting the plea that challenged the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Gujarat riots case made some stinging observations and said that the proceedings have been pursued for the last 16 years to keep the pot boiling. This is obviously for an ulterior design, the court also said.

Justice A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar said that all those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law.

The court today upheld the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots in the state and dismissed a plea by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia Jafri.

Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society during violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning. Zakia Jafri had challenged the SIT's clean chit to 64 people, including Modi who was Gujarat chief minister in 2002.

It appears to us that an effort of the disgruntled officials of the state of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge, the Bench said.

The falsity of their claims has been fully exposed by the SIT after a through investigation. On the challenge to the SIT's probe, the Bench said that such submissions are not only far-fetched and an attempt to undo and undermine the industry of the SIT.

There is no indication about the link to show the hatching of a criminal conspiracy at the highest level to cause precipitate mass violence across the state against the minority community during the relevant period, the three judge Bench also said.

The sting operation conducted by Tehelka too was rejected stating it is not a final determination regarding the evidentiary value thereof. We say so because the same will have to be dealt with in appropriate proceedings in particular.

The SIT has taken up the probe objectively and dispassionately to the satisfaction of this court. The argument by the petitioners was bordering on undermining the integrity and sincerity of the members of the SIT, the court said.

The question of a further investigation would have arisen only the availability of new material and information. However no such information is forthcoming the Bench said.

We find force in the argument of Gujarat that the testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt, Haren Pandya and also that of R B Sreekumar was only to sensationalise and politicise the matter. Commenting on Sanjeev Bhat, the court said that for persons not privy to the meetings where utterances were allegedly made by Narendra Modi, falsely claimed themselves to be eye-witnesses in the case. After the thorough investigation by the SIT, it has become clear that it is false, the Supreme Court said.

On such false claims, the structure of the larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level has been erected. The same stands collapsed like a house of cards after the probe by the SIT, the court said.

The protagonists of the quest for justice sitting in a comfortable environment in their air-conditioned office may succeed in connecting the failures of the state administration little knowing or even referring to the ground realities.

On the petition filed by Zakia Jafri challenging the closure report of the SIT, the court said that she was obviously doing so under the dictation of some.