New Delhi, January 20: Nearly eight years after the post-Godhra communal mayhem in Gujarat, the probe by a Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) into nine most gruesome riot cases appears to be moving closer to investigating the actions of chief minister Narendra Modi during the period of violence.
On Tuesday, SIT complained to a Bench comprising Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam that the Gujarat government had stonewalled its request for copies of speeches that Modi made in the immediate aftermath of the riots, along with other documents.
The Bench directed the state government to immediately supply the SIT, headed by former CBI director R K Raghavan, with copies of speeches as well as other documents to facilitate the probe.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday intervened on behalf of the SIT probing the post-Godhra riots with the Gujarat government. “If SIT thinks Modi’s speeches were relevant for the purpose of the probe, why wouldn’t you give those to it?’’ the court asked.
Importantly, the court also agreed to examine a plea, supported by the Centre, to reconstitute SIT on the ground that it had not been discharging its brief satisfactorily.
It was last year that the SC asked SIT to also probe a complaint by Jakia Nasim Ahesan Hussain Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ahsan Jafri who was killed by a mob at Gulbarg Society, alleging that the communal riot was allowed to go on in the state with the CM, cabinet ministers, police and bureaucracy abdicating their constitutional duty to protect life and property of citizens irrespective of their caste and religion.
Apart from accusing Modi and 62 others, including the collectors and SPs of every riot-affected district of grave dereliction of duty, Jafri had alleged that there had been “deliberate attempts to scuttle most of the cases”.
Citing extracts of affidavits given by senior police officials, she alleged that the administration was deliberately lethargic in controlling the rampaging mobs. Jafri had also alleged that terror reigned in the state even now and key witnesses were being coerced into silence.
The bench also agreed to look into an application by one Devendrabhai Pathak seeking reconstitution of SIT, alleging that the SC’s crack team was ignoring vital evidence.
-Agencies