to give his independent appraisal of the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) status report in the Gulbarg Society massacre case.
The apex court bench of Justice D.K. Jain, Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Aftab Alam told Ramachandran that he was free to interact with the witnesses and police officers named in the status report.
The court asked former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director and SIT chairman R.K. Raghavan to make available a copy of the status report to Ramachandran.
The apex court had asked SIT to conduct further investigation on the basis of the observations made by the Amicus Curiae. The Amicus had pointed to several gaps in the SIT report that was submitted earlier in pursuance of the apex court direction on Zakia Jaffri’s petition.
Zakia Jaffri had moved the apex court seeking enquiry into the role of Modi, his several ministerial colleagues, senior police and State administration officials in the Gulberg society massacre in which 69 people were killed on February 28, 2002.
The court’s reservation on the earlier SIT report was articulated by Justice Aftab Alam in the course of March 15, 2011, hearing when he had said, “Your inference does not match your findings.”
While recording that SIT has submitted its report on its further investigations into 28 February, 2002, massacre at Gulberg society, the court said that “it is open to the Amicus Curiae to study the report and make an assessment. It is also open for the Amicus to assess and finalise the report in the light of the statement made by the witnesses.”
The court also allowed Ramachandran to interact with the witnesses and the police officers to arrive at an independent assessment of SIT report. It is for the first time ever since court appointed SIT in April 2008, that Amicus curiae has been asked to give an independent assessment of the investigation report.
The court-appointed SIT was directed to investigate the Gulbarg Society massacre in the wake of a petition by Zakia Jaffri, the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri, who was among the 69 people killed in the massacre in the society in the aftermath of the post Godhra communal riots of 2002.
