Giving its verdict on the petition filed by Zakia Jafri — the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulbarg massacre, the SC aid that it was for the lower court to take a call over evidence presented in the SIT’s report.
“No further monitoring of 2002 Gujarat riots cases is required by it,” the apex court said.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice D K Jain directed the SIT, which is probing the riot cases, to submit its final report before the magistrate who was asked to decide whether to proceed against Modi and 63 others, including senior government officials.
The bench made it clear that there was no need for it to further monitor the riot cases. The bench also comprising justices P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam said in case the magistrate decides to drop proceedings against Modi and others, he has to hear the plea of slain MP Ehsan Jafri’s widow Zakia Jafri, who had filed a complaint against the Gujarat Chief Minister.
The petition alleged deliberate inaction on part of the Gujarat chief minister, his cabinet colleagues and some high-ranking state officials in preventing the carnage.
“we are of the opinion that in the instant case we have reached a stage where the process of monitoring of the case must come to an end,” the court observed.
However, the court said that if for any reasons the SIT recommends the closure of case against any person named by Zakia Jaffri, the trial court would do so after issuing notice to her and giving her an opportunity of raising objections and being heard.
“However, at this juncture, we deem it necessary to emphasise that if for any stated reason the SIT opines in its report, to be submitted in terms of this order, that there is no sufficient evidence or reasonable grounds for proceeding against any person named in the complaint, dated 8th June 2006, before taking a final decision on such ‘closure’ report, the Court shall issue notice to the complainant and make available to her copies of the statements of the witnesses, other related documents and the investigation report strictly in accordance with law as enunciated by this Court…”, the order read.
“For the sake of ready reference, we may note that in the said decision, it has been held that in a case where the Magistrate to whom a report is forwarded under Section 173(2)(i) of the Code, decides not to take cognizance of the offence and to drop the proceedings or takes a view that there is no sufficient ground for proceeding against some of the persons mentioned in the FIR, the Magistrate must give notice to the informant and provide him an opportunity to be heard at the time of consideration of the report”, the order said.
The court directed the SIT headed by the former CBI Director R.K. Raghvan to forward its final report, along with the entire material collected by the SIT, to the Court which had taken cognizance of Gulberg Society carnage case.
The order said that “before submission of its report to the trial court, it will be open to the SIT to obtain from the Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran copies of his reports submitted to this Court.”
The order said that the trial “Court will deal with the matter in accordance with law relating to the trial of the accused, named in the report/charge-sheet, including matters falling within the ambit and scope of Section 173(8) of the Code.”
69 people, including the former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed in the 2002 carnage. The rampaging mob targeted members of Muslim community in the Ahmedabad neighbourhood and set it afire.
The apex court on April 27, 2009 had asked the SIT to ‘look into’ the complaint of Zakia Jafri alleging involvement of 63 people, including the chief minister, for inaction.