Hearing on SIT report today
A local court will on Monday hear the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has reportedly given a clean chit to Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi among others for their role in 2002 post-Godhra riots.
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.
The SIT has reportedly observed that it did not have “prosecutable evidence” against Mr Modi and 57 others.
Earlier, the apex 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 Ms Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffrey, in the infamous Gulburg Society case where 69 people were killed during the communal riot in 2002.
The SIT, after questioning many people, including Mr Modi, had filed a report in the Supreme Court in which it had reportedly said that there was no prosecutable evidence against the chief minister.
The top court had then asked amicus curie Raju Ramchandran to independently assess the SIT report.
Mr Ramcharndran during his visit to Gujarat interacted with several persons as well as witnesses and then submitted his report to the Supreme Court in which he reportedly differed from the view expressed by the SIT on prosecuting Mr Modi and others.
The SIT and Mr Ramchandran also met suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who in his affidavit filed before the top 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 went their anger” after 59 people, most of them Karsevaks, were killed in the Godhra train burning incident.
The SIT, however, in its report submitted to the Supreme Court had reportedly said that Mr Bhatt was not a reliable witness as his claim of being present in the said meeting was negated by nine other senior most police and home department officials who attended the meeting.
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