Gujarat Riots- Two Ministers Of State Cabinet Positioned In City Control Rooms to Directly Interfere With Police Functioning: Kapil Sibal To SC In Zakia Jafri's Plea

The Supreme Court on Wednesday continued hearing Zakia Ahsan Jafri's plea challenging the SIT report giving clean chit to the then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other high functionaries in the Gujarat riots of 2002.At the outset, the bench of Justices A. M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C. T. Ravikumar told Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, for the petitioner, "Mr Sibal, the best course would be to not go backwards. The history of 2009 and 2010 may not help us today. We have to start from the 2011 order when this Court required the SIT to submit its final report. There was an option to file a protest petition. Show us what the report presented and what was the protest plea filed in reference to the report. Show us what ingredients of the protest plea were not taken into account by the magistrate"Mr. Sibal began by indicating former journalist Ashish Khetan's sting operation on Babu Bajrangi from the Bajrang Dal, accused of leading the mob in Naroda Patiya—a Muslim-dominated locality—during the violence. Khetan had met him multiple times in 2007, as an undercover journalist with a spy camera, with Bajrangi confessing to his role in the massacre, and also speaks to the complicity of the police and the CM at that time.Mr. Sibal told the bench that Khetan was a prosecution witness in one of the cases and that though the sting operation was relied on by the SIT in relation to other accused, it was discarded in the instant case."This gentleman has admitted that it is his voice in the tape and he has admitted to the conversation with Ashish Khetan. However, he makes the statement that he was told that a film was being made on Hinduism and that he was induced by Khetan to read the script given to him by Khetan. This tape was authenticated by the CBI as genuine. But the tape was not taken into consideration, that stage did not come, the closure report was filed and that was it. What is this way of the SIT dealing with it? Even the local police would not deal with it like this. And the court just looked beyond what happened. This is how these transcripts are dealt with! That because he is being prosecuted elsewhere and that matter is sub-judice, so I will not prosecute him here?", argued Mr. Sibal.At this, Justice Khanwilkar asked, "Your grievance is that you have made 'larger conspiracy' allegations in the complaint which were not taken into consideration because the magistrate's inquiry was limited to Gulberg Society. How will this evidence of the individual role of individual accused, who were also accused in some other offence, help you?""We are talking about the entire state. If you limit it to Gulberg, that is the end of the matter", replied Mr. Sibal."Let us focus on how the closure report dealt with your complaint", said the judge."The report has not looked at any of this. There is not a sentence in the report on any of this. If there was, I would tell you. I am an officer of the court. All this material was with the SIT and it was not looked at", urged Mr. Sibal."The material is to be looked at based on the allegations", remarked the judge."These are part of the protest petition allegations. In the closure report, none of this has been looked at. Now, look at the protest petition. We will go allegation-wise", responded Mr. Sibal.Mr. Sibal expressly omitted the allegations with regards to a meeting convened by the then-CM of Gujarat on February 27 where allegedly certain instructions were given in connection with the subsequent 3-day mayhem. "I don't want to enter into any political arena. I only want the rule of law to be upheld", said Mr. Sibal.Decision To Hand Over Sabarmati Express Carnage Dead Bodies To VHP State Leader Jaideep Patel For Being Taken By Road to AhmedabadIt may be noted that the protest petition urged that the handing over of the bodies to a private person was part of the larger conspiracy and that it was the alleged "parading" of the bodies in Ahmedabad which was said to have been one of the reasons behind the state-wide reprisal killings."Why the dead bodies were handed over to Jaideep Patel is a serious issue. Jaideep Patel was no official. He was a VHP functionary. Dead bodies were handed over on an official document. A private person has handed over dead bodies in respect of offences of murder, burning, which caused a national outburst, and rightly so. And this is all which is said by the SIT?... What is said is 'alright, we will have an enquiry'? What happened to that enquiry? Nothing. The fact of the matter is that Jaideep Patel made the statement that it was unanimously agreed that he should be handed over the bodies. This asks for serious investigation! Someone has to be prosecuted for it! Because what happened in the process was that by the time the bodies reached at 3:30 or 4 in the morning by truck, 3000 people had already gathered there!", argued Mr. Sibal.Justice Khanwilkar noted from the records that the bodies were handed over to the kith and kin. Mr. Sibal...

Gujarat Riots- Two Ministers Of State Cabinet Positioned In City Control Rooms to Directly Interfere With Police Functioning: Kapil Sibal To SC In Zakia Jafri's Plea

Mehal Jain

Tags