New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed the Gujarat riots cases, to inform it about whether all the documents relating to the closure report filed by it have been provided to riots victim Zakia Jafri.
Ms Jafri's case relates to the killing of her husband, Ehsan Jafri, and 68 people by a riotous mob on February 28, 2002 at the Gulberg Housing Society in Ahmedabad where they lived.
Today's directive came after Ms Jafri told the top court that the SIT had not given her all the required documents which consequently prevented her from filing a protest petition against the agency's closure report in the case that was filed earlier this year. Last week, a court in Ahmedabad had ruled that Ms Jafri had lost the right to petition against the closure report that gave a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The court had observed that Ms Jafri had failed to file the petition despite repeated extensions being granted. Ms Jafri has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the trial court's order.
"We want to sort out this issue so that justice is rendered to everybody, to the complainant and the accused," a bench comprising justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur said.
The investigating officer for SIT, headed by former CBI Director RK Raghavan, told the court that all documents except the inquiry report were given to Ms Jafri.
The Supreme Court had set up the SIT to look into Ms Jafri's case and other cases. In February this year, the SIT gave a clean chit to Mr Modi, saying it had found no evidence against him in the case.
Ms Jafri alleges that Mr Modi and several senior ministers and officials did nothing to prevent the killings, despite several frantic calls made by Mr Jafri to the police and even to the Chief Minister's office, for help as a mob attacked the housing complex.