Gujarat riots were not pre-planned: SC upholds SIT's clean chit to Narendra Modi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 24

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the clean chit given to Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, and 63 others in the Gujarat riots case by a special investigation team in its 2012 report, which concluded that the riots were spontaneous and not pre-planned.

The court dismissed an appeal by Zakia Jafri, wife of the Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the carnage, against the 2017 Gujarat High Court judgment that had upheld a lower court order accepting the SIT’s February 8, 2012, report and rejecting Jafri’s protest petition against the SIT. A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar today said the SIT “has not found any conspiracy, linking separate and disparate acts of arson and looting or outrageous claims made in sting operations or individual utterances/publications or purported hate speech to any singular larger conspiracy or planned event.” It said, “No evidence regarding meeting of minds could be culled out from the statements of the persons concerned, much less to link the offenders named in the complaint of appellant.”

Zakia’s husband was killed in 2002 riots

• Feb 27, 2002: 59 karsevaks killed as train coaches set on fire at Godhra railway station
• Feb 28, 2002: Mob attack inhabitants of Gulberg Society (Ahmedabad), killing 69 persons, including husband of appellant Zakia Jafri.
• Mar 6, 2002: Gujarat Govt appoints panel to probe Godhra incident & riots
• Oct 9, 2003: NHRC files writ plea before SC. Harish Salve appointed amicus curiae
• Jun 8, 2006: Zakia files complaint against Modi and others
• Mar 26, 2008: SC appoints SIT
• Feb 8, 2012: SIT files closure report giving clean chit to Modi and 63 others
• Apr 15, 2013: Zakia files protest petition in local court
• Dec 26, 2013: Protest petition rejected by Metropolitan Magistrate and SIT report accepted
• Oct 5, 2017: High Court too rejects Zakia’s plea on SIT
• Sep 12, 2018: Zakia moves SC

Observing that for being involved in the crime of criminal conspiracy, there ought to be positive material indicative of deliberate act of commission and omission and meeting of minds of the persons concerned, the Bench said: “The same was completely absent and not forthcoming during the investigation conducted by the SIT to inquire into the allegations of larger criminal conspiracy.”

The materials gathered during the investigation in no way link any “meeting of the minds” in any of the nine cases investigated by the SIT or, for that matter, other incidents alleged in the complaint or the protest petition, the apex court ruled, noting that “the riots across the state had taken place spontaneously, immediately after the Godhra train carnage.”

No conspiracy found

The SIT has not found any conspiracy, linking separate and disparate acts of arson...to any singular larger conspiracy or planned event. Intriguingly, the present proceedings have been pursued for last 16 years... to keep the pot boiling for ulterior design. —Bench

The SC also expressed appreciation for what it called “the indefatigable work done by the team of SIT officials in the challenging circumstances it had to face”.

“We find that it (SIT) has come out with flying colours unscathed. At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the state of Gujarat along with others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge. The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT. Intriguingly, the present proceedings have been pursued for the last 16 years (from submission of complaint dated 8.6.2006 running into 67 pages and then by filing protest petition dated 15.4.2013 running into 514 pages)... to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design,” the highest court said in strong remarks.

It noted, “All those involved in such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceed with in accordance with law.”

The SC said: “No fault can be found with the approach of the SIT (formed by the apex court earlier) in submitting the final report dated February 8, 2012, which is backed by firm logic....discarding the allegations regarding larger criminal conspiracy (at the highest level)...”

The court upheld the decision of the Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate to accept the SIT report “as it is and to reject Jafri’s protest petition”, and dismissed Jafri’s appeal against the October 5, 2017, Gujarat HC judgment upholding the lower court’s orders.

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