In a breather to Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by an advocate questioning the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe giving clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister in 2002 riots in the state.
Describing the plea as ‘baseless’, the apex court also declined the appeal to reconstitute SIT involving retired judges of the apex court, including a person from the minority community.
“Reconstitution of SIT at this stage is not good,” a bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde said, referring the plea questioning the SIT clean chit given to the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
After the bench’s remark, Advocate Fatima A, who had filed the petition, decided to withdraw it which was allowed.
The SIT had given clean chit to Modi for his alleged inaction during the riots.
On April 04, the Supreme Court had expressed satisfaction over probes by the SIT in nine cases related to the 2002 riots in Gujarat post Godhra.
The bench of Justice HL Dattu, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice MY Eqbal appreciated the work done by the SIT headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director RK Raghvan as it perused the SIT’s February 27 status report.