Gujarat riots: SIT submits report to SC

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Friday submitted in the Supreme Court the final report on the results of its investigation into the role of 63 persons, including Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the Gulberg Society massacre case.

SIT chief R K Raghavan submitted the report to the apex court registry. The team had in an earlier hearing sought time for submitting the report as it wanted more time to question VHP International president Praveen Togadia and incorporate the information so received.
The probe team had started its investigation into the case after the Supreme Court in April 27, 2009 asked it to “look into” a complaint filed by ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri’s widow, Zakia, on the alleged collusion of the state machinery with rioters during the post-Godhra killings for almost two days.
The very order of the Supreme Court Bench led by Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat to involve the SIT is now under challenge, and is being termed “illegal” by one of the accused, former BJP MLA Kalu Maliwad, who is represented by senior advocate Ram Jethmalani.
Jethmalani has consistently argued that the April 2009 order was passed without prior notice sent to any of the accused or without giving them an opportunity to be heard.
But this did not prevent the SIT from summoning Modi for a six-hour session of questioning on his alleged role in the killing of Jafri in 2002, who allegedly had made frantic calls for help to police and the Chief Minister.
Even the Gujarat government had joined the bandwagon, by complaining that it had not been taken into confidence and was not in possession of the SIT’s investigation reports. The state government was later supplied with the documents and had in turn filed an affidavit about how certain civil rights activists were tutoring witnesses, including Zakia, to lodge complaints against the state police.
The report also comes in the background of accusations of lapses and bias levelled against the SIT members in the investigation of the riots cases, and also the quitting of one state public prosecutor and the firing of another.
The SC is currently seized with demands for the reconstitution of the probe team.
WHILE the Mumbai CBI has sought permission to question Rajasthan inspector general of police (IGP) Rajeev Dasot in connection with the Sohrabuddin ‘encounter’ case, a CBI team has quizzed three other IPS officers from Rajasthan this week. The three IPS officers met with a CBI team, presently camping in Udaipur.
The CBI on Thursday sought permission from the Rajasthan director general of police (DGP) to question Dasot, presently the IGP for Kota, who was IGP Udaipur when the Sohrabuddin ‘encounter’ occurred. Then Udaipur SP Dinesh M N has already been arrested in this regard. “The CBI has sent a letter to our office and has intimated that they wanted to question an IPS officer,” Rajasthan DGP H C Meena said.
A CBI team has interviewed three other IPS officers, Hinglajdhan, who was as assistant SP in Udaipur and Bal Mukund Verma and Virendra Jhala, who were both additional SPs in 2005. Though CBI officials remained tightlipped about the investigation and the questioning of the IPS officers, sources maintained that they were only trying to get a clearer picture of the events that transpired before the 2005 Sohrabuddin encounter.
Incidentally, a team from the Gujarat CID (Crime) branch has been camping in Udaipur since the last week on the trail of four Rajasthan police personnel, an assistant sub-inspector of police, a head constable and two constables, in connection with the Tulsi Prajapati encounter case. It is believed that these four policemen had escorted Tulsi Prajapati to Ahmedabad for a court hearing and were returning when Prajapati allegedly tried to escape and was gunned down.
Senior Rajasthan police chiefs maintained that they were assisting the Gujarat police and the CBI as best as they could. A senior Rajasthan police officer stated that while all the IPS officers had met CBI sleuths without delay, the Udaipur police were assisting the Gujarat CID (Crime) branch in apprehending the four wanted policemen.