2002 Gujarat riots: Communal violence is like lava erupting from volcano, Kapil Sibal tells Supreme Court

Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 10

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Describing communal violence as “lava erupting from a volcano” which scarred the ground it touched, senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Wednesday questioned the SIT clean chit to 64 people, including the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, during the 2002 riots there.

“I lost my maternal parents to it in Pakistan. I am a victim of the same,” a visibly emotional Sibal told a Bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar on behalf of Zakia Jafri, the widow of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.

“My concern is really for the future…Communal violence is like lava erupting from a volcano. It’s institutionalised violence. Wherever that lava touches, it scars the earth,” he said, adding communal violence was a “fertile ground” for future revenge.

Maintaining that he was not accusing A or B, Sibal said a message must be sent to the world that this was “unacceptable” and “can’t be tolerated”.

He said it’s a “historic matter” because the choice was between ensuring that rule of law prevailed or letting people run amok.

Alleging that there was a “larger conspiracy, bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speeches leading to violence”, Sibal demanded that it should be investigated.

“The SIT never seized any phones…never checked CDR records…never checked how bombs were manufactured…and it never took stock of the whereabouts of the accused. So, whichever way you look at it, there has to be an investigation,” Sibal submitted.

The arguments are likely to resume on Thursday.

The Supreme Court on October 26 said it would like to peruse the SIT giving a clean chit to 64 people, including the then chief minister Narendra Modi, and the justification given by a magisterial court that accepted the closure report.

Zakia had moved the top court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the decision of the SIT set up by the top court. She has demanded an investigation into her husband’s killing during the riots.

Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at Gulberg Society on February 28, 2002, a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.

On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving a clean chit to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was “no prosecutable evidence” against them.