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Tag: 2002 Gujarat riots

  • 2002 Gujarat riots: SC questions Zakia Jafri how post-mortem of Godhra victims establishes larger conspiracy

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned Zakia Jafri for “emphatically” raising the issue of the post-mortem of the victims of the 2002 Godhra incident and asked how it establish the allegation of a larger conspiracy in the Gujarat riots.

    Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed at Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, during the violence, has challenged the SIT’s clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister during the riots.

    The S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra, killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat in 2002.

    A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Zakia Jafri who has alleged larger conspiracy during the riots, that he is “focusing emphatically” on the issue of how post-mortem was conducted but what context it has with the allegation of a larger conspiracy.

    ​ALSO READ | Stark collaboration between political class, bureaucracy, others during 2002 Gujarat riots: Zakia Jafri to SC

    “How does it establish a larger conspiracy,” the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, asked Sibal.

    “What is the larger conspiracy you are talking about. You tell us about that,” the bench said, adding, “You are focusing on this fact emphatically that how post-mortem was done. We have taken note of that.”

    The top court, which asked how this issue was relevant in the context of an allegation of a larger conspiracy, said the district magistrate had explained how it (post mortem) was conducted.

    Sibal said it should have been investigated as to who had instructed that the post-mortem of the Godhra victim be conducted in a particular fashion.

    “I can’t prove a larger conspiracy by stating this. I can only say that they (SIT) should have investigated this,” Sibal said, adding that several phone call records of that time were not analysed during the probe.

    During the day-long arguments which remained inconclusive and would continue on November 23, Sibal said the petitioner did not want to give any “colour” and is only seeking that a proper investigation be conducted on the issue of alleged larger conspiracy as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had not probed several aspects.

    The senior advocate said he has only referred to the materials which are part of the SIT records and the reason is that “we did not want to give a colour to it. We just want an investigation”.

    He said it should have been investigated as to how mutilated bodies were allowed to be seen in the public domain as the relevant manual and procedure clearly states that this cannot be done.

    Sibal said that bodies were flashed on TV channels and this evoked emotions and had consequences.

    He referred to a sting operation and said the SIT had not looked into it although it was used in another case of the 2002 riots in which the accused were convicted by the court.

    ​ALSO READ | SIT did no investigation, protected people from being prosecuted in 2002 riots, Zakia Jafri tells SC

    “They (SIT) in fact accepted the statements of those persons otherwise they would have made them accused,” Sibal said.

    He said no action was taken on time by the concerned state authorities to either impose a curfew or take preventive measures so that violence could have been avoided.

    “The reason I am emphasising it is that your lordships may decide the matter one way or the other but for future, this court must lay down what is required to be done. It is very important,” he said.

    “Even the Constitution is printed words. In that cold print lies the soul and you, through your judgements, give energy to the soul and it will come alive and will not be a dead letter,” he said.

    The senior advocate argued that he is not blaming either A or B and it is ultimately about peace and tranquility.

    Sibal had earlier argued that Zakia Jafri’s complaint of 2006 was that there was “a larger conspiracy where there was bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speeches and unleashing of violence”.

    Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SIT, had earlier told the apex court that Zakia Jafri’s complaint alleging larger conspiracy was thoroughly examined after which the SIT concluded that there was no material to take it forward.

    Ehsan Jafri, the former MP, was among the 68 people killed in the violence, a day after the Godhra train incident.

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

    Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision.

    The plea also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering “substantiated merits”.

    It also said the high court “failed to appreciate” the petitioner’s complaint which was independent of the Gulberg Society case registered at a Police Station in Ahmedabad.

    The high court in its October 2017 order had said the SIT probe was monitored by the Supreme Court.

    However, it partly allowed Zakia Jafri’s petition as far as its demand for a further investigation was concerned.

    It had said the petitioner can approach an appropriate forum, including the magistrate’s court, a division bench of the high court, or the Supreme Court seeking further investigation.

  • Stark collaboration between political class, bureaucracy, others during 2002 Gujarat riots: Zakia Jafri to SC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: There was a “stark collaboration” between the political class, bureaucracy, investigators and others during the 2002 Gujarat riots after the “national tragedy” of Sabarmati Express incident at Godhra and the SIT did not investigate these aspects, Zakia Jafri told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

    The apex court asked Zakia Jafri’s counsel Kapil Sibal as to whether he was attributing motives to the SIT and said the term ‘collaboration’ is a very strong term for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the top court.

    A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said the same SIT had filed charge sheets in the riots cases in which accused were convicted.

    Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed at Gulberg society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002 during the violence, has challenged the SIT’s clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister during the riots.

    The S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat in 2002.

    Sibal told the bench that there are “glaring instances of collaboration” which are borne out from records but the SIT did not investigate on the alleged larger conspiracy in the riots.

    “So far as your grievance about collaboration of local police at the ground level, we can understand that and we will look into it. How can you say that about the SIT which was appointed by the court,” the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, asked Sibal.

    The bench asked Sibal whether the petitioner is “attacking” the manner of investigation done by the SIT.

    The senior advocate said, “Yes. That is something which troubles me.”

    The bench then observed, “How can you attribute motives to the SIT? It is the same SIT which filed charge sheets and people were convicted. No such grievance was made in such cases and you appreciated the work done by the SIT in those cases.”

    “The expression ‘collaboration’ is a very strong term for an SIT constituted by this court.”

    Sibal said grievances were raised also in the cases where charge sheets were filed and the records show collaboration of the state machinery.

    “I will demonstrate that after that national tragedy on Sabarmati Express, what happened was that instead of investigating the perpetrators of the crime, the investigators actually became collaborators to the crime. It is not that the entire police machinery was collaborating,” Sibal said.

    “There are glaring instances of collaboration that is borne out from the records. The bureaucracy, political class, VHP, RSS and others became collaborators. There was stark collaboration,” he told the bench.

    The SIT had the knowledge of a sting operation, which was used in another riots case in which accused were convicted, but they did not probe those people, Sibal said and asked whether the SIT was saving those persons.

    “You can pitch your arguments that these were to be done by the SIT, but it was not done. May be, there was error of judgment and this will have to be explained,” the bench said Sibal said that those, who were accused and were ex-facie involved in criminal offences, were not prosecuted.

    He said officers who did their duty were prosecuted and those who “collaborated” were rewarded.

    The senior advocate said relevant materials were not investigated and placed before the court by the SIT.

    “There was collaboration in the violence. No court, no democracy can countenance it. Otherwise, a message will go that we can do anything and nothing will happen to us,” he said.

    Sibal said that no person has been sought to be prosecuted for hate speeches at that time.

    “What becomes the ultimate victim in this case is the justice,” he said, adding, “This is the failure of the system”.

    The day-long arguments in the matter remained inconclusive and would continue on Wednesday.

    Sibal had earlier argued that Zakia Jafri’s complaint of 2006 alleging larger conspiracy in the riots was not investigated by the SIT.

    Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SIT, had earlier told the apex court that Zakia Jafri’s complaint alleging larger conspiracy was thoroughly examined after which the SIT came to the conclusion that there was no material to take it forward.

    Ehsan Jafri, the former MP, was among the 68 people killed in the violence, a day after the Godhra train incident.

    Sibal had argued that Zakia Jafri’s complaint was that there was “a larger conspiracy where there was bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speeches and unleashing of violence”.

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

    Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision.

    The plea also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering “substantiated merits”.

    It also said the high court “failed to appreciate” the petitioner’s complaint which was independent of the Gulberg Society case registered at a police station in Ahmedabad.

    The high court in its October 2017 order had said the SIT probe was monitored by the Supreme Court.

    However, it partly allowed Zakia Jafri’s petition as far as its demand for a further investigation was concerned.

    It had said the petitioner can approach an appropriate forum, including the magistrate’s court, a division bench of the high court, or the Supreme Court seeking further investigation.

  • SIT did no investigation, protected people from being prosecuted in 2002 riots, Zakia Jafri tells SC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had not conducted any probe on the alleged larger conspiracy in the 2002 Gujarat riots and there was an effort to “protect” and ensure that people from the Bajrang Dal, police, bureaucracy and others are not prosecuted, Zakia Jafri told the Supreme Court on Thursday.

    The wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, who was killed at Gulberg society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002 during the violence, has challenged the SIT’s clean chit to 64 people including Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat chief minister during the riots.

    Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Zakia Jafri, told a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar that the SIT did not do its job and the inaction by the concerned authorities of the state during the violence allowed the mob to “run amok”.

    “There was no investigation at all. There was only an effort to protect and to ensure that nobody is prosecuted. It was to protect VHP people, Bajrang Dal people, protect policemen, protect the bureaucracy. That is what was done by the SIT,” Sibal told the bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar.

    During the day-long arguments, which would continue on November 16, the senior advocate said that Zakia Jafri’s complaint of 2006 alleging larger conspiracy in the riots was not investigated by the SIT.

    He told the bench that whosoever “collaborated” in the larger conspiracy was “accommodated in a very big way”.

    “Who is involved and in what manner he is involved, that was never investigated,” he said, adding that the obligation of an investigating agency is to ensure that victims get justice.

    He said the most important part of an investigation is the purity of the process and if that “purity vanishes and it is polluted, you are left with nothing”.

    He also referred to the alleged inaction by the concerned authorities during the 2002 violence in Gujarat.

    The bench observed that inaction during investigation is different than inaction during commission of crime.

    When Sibal argued the petitioner had earlier said that investigation was slow, the bench said, “That was corrected by the Supreme Court by appointing an SIT”.

    The senior advocate argued that question which arises for consideration is why these things happened and why the SIT did not look into all these.

    “They (concerned authorities) allowed the mob to run amok,” he said, adding it was because of the conspiracy that no action was taken at that time.

    “If your investigation is impure like this then how will one ensure justice for the victim,” he said.

    Sibal told the bench that without a “pure and unbiased investigation”, the procedure established by the law would be violated.

    Referring to Article 14 of the Constitution, which deals with equality before law, Sibal said the State cannot deny equality and the State includes investigating machinery.

    He said investigation means to trace out and the whole purpose of it is fact finding.

    Sibal told the bench that an SIT was set up by the apex court in the Gujarat riots case because the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had moved the top court saying the local police was not investigating the matter properly.

    “I am not making any allegations. I am only saying that the SIT did not do its job,” he said, adding that several crucial materials, including a sting operation and call detail records, were not looked into by the SIT.

    The senior advocate also recounted that during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, when he was residing in Maharani Bagh area here, the mob came and attacked only two houses of Sikh people which were pre-identified.

    Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the SIT, had told the apex court on Wednesday that Zakia Jafri’s complaint alleging larger conspiracy was thoroughly examined after which the SIT came to the conclusion that there was no material to take it forward.

    Ehsan Jafri, the former MP, was among the 68 people killed in the violence, a day after the S-6 Coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.

    Sibal had earlier argued that Zakia Jafri’s complaint was that there was “a larger conspiracy where there was bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speeches and unleashing of violence”.

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

    Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision.

    The plea also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering “substantiated merits”.

    It also said the high court “failed to appreciate” the petitioner’s complaint which was independent of the Gulberg Society case registered at a Police Station in Ahmedabad.

    The high court in its October 2017 order had said the SIT probe was monitored by the Supreme Court.

    However, it partly allowed Zakia Jafri’s petition as far as its demand for a further investigation was concerned.

    It had said the petitioner can approach an appropriate forum, including the magistrate’s court, a division bench of the high court, or the Supreme Court seeking further investigation.

  • Zakia Jafri questions SIT role in Gujarat riots inquiry

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Appearing for Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots, senior advocate Kapil Sibal told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that he too has been a victim of communal violence, having lost maternal grandparents after the partition of India in 1947.

    “Communal violence is like lava erupting from a volcano. It is institutionalised violence. Wherever that lava touches, it scars the earth. It is a fertile ground for future revenge,” Sibal said. Arguing before a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar, Sibal said the Special Investigative Team looking into the Gujarat riots ignored a mass of evidence and drew conclusions without any investigation.

    “SIT did not record statements, seize phones, check how bombs were manufactured and straightaway filed closure reports,” Sibal said, challenging the clean chit given by SIT to the accused including then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

    He said the SIT ignored the tapes of a sting operation by Tehelka magazine, in which many gave statements on their participation in violence and accumulation of arms. Although these tapes were used for conviction in the Naroda Patya case and the Gujarat HC had endorsed their authenticity, the SIT ignored them in Jafri’s complaint.

    Congress MP Jafri was among the 68 killed on February 28, 2002 — a day after a coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt,  killing 59 and triggering riots.

  • BJP’s turn to apologise for Gujarat riots after Congress admits ‘Emergency error’: Nawab Malik

    By ANI
    MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Cabinet minister Nawab Malik on Wednesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to apologise for the 2002 Gujarat riots following Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s admission that the Emergency imposed in the country during the tenure of his grandmother, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was wrong.

    “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has accepted that the declaration of the Emergency was wrong. After 45 years of its implementation, Congress has accepted their mistake,” Malik said.

    “Congress has also apologised for the Delhi riots. Now it’s the turn of the BJP to apologise for the Gujarat riots. It takes a large heart to accept the wrongs of the past, to accept that the declaration of ’emergency’ was a mistake. Rahul Gandhi has done it,” he added.

    Congress leader and the party’s former president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the Emergency imposed in the country during the tenure of his grandmother the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was wrong.

    On 25 June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had announced a national emergency in view of ‘threats to national security.During the emergency, opposition leaders were arrested, censorship was imposed, and a ban was announced on grassroots organisations which lasted for a period of 21 months

    Over a thousand people were killed during the three-day riots that ensued at several places in Gujarat after around 58 people lost their lives when the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was torched at the Godhra Railway Station on February 27, 2002.