'Appeal devoid of merit': SC junks Zakia Jafri plea, upholds clean chit given to Narendra Modi in Gujarat riots case

Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri, had blamed Modi and others for the 2002 Gulburg Housing Society riot case of Ahmedabad

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the clean chit given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others in 2002 Gujarat riots during his tenure as the Chief Minister, terming the 16-year-long pursuit of Zakia Jafri, whose husband was killed in the violence, as abuse of the process. The apex court stressed the need to put those involved in keeping "the pot boiling" on the dock.

The top court pointed out the court-appointed SIT had in 2012 formed its opinion after considering all the materials, discarding the larger criminal conspiracy allegations at the highest level for causing and precipitating mass violence across the state against the minority community.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar noted that the SIT report was backed by firm logic, expositing analytical mind and dealing with all aspects objectively since it has also gone by "the logic of falsity of the information or material" as those remained uncorroborated.

"The materials collected do not give rise to strong or grave suspicion regarding hatching of larger criminal conspiracy," the court concluded.

The bench said it found force in the argument of the Gujarat government led by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the testimony of then senior IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, and former Home Minister Haren Pandya and also another senior IPS officer R B Sreekumar was only to "sensationalise and politicise the matters in issue, although, replete with falsehood".

"We express our appreciation for the indefatigable work done by the team of SIT officials in the challenging circumstances they had to face and yet, we find that they have come out with flying colours unscathed," the bench said.

At the end of the day, it appears that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials, alongwith others was to create sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge. The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation, the bench added.

The court also said, "intriguingly," the present proceedings have been pursued for last 16 years from submission of complaint on June 8, 2006 running into 67 pages and then by filing protest petition on April 15, 2013 running into 514 pages, including with "the audacity to question the integrity of every functionary involved in the process of exposing the devious stratagem adopted (to borrow the submission of counsel for the SIT), to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design".

"As a matter of fact, all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law," the bench added.

The 307-page judgement, besides 144-page annexure, approved the SIT's final report of December 8, 2012. The Ahmedabad's Magistrate court had accepted the report on December 12, 2013 and rejected protest petition filed on April 15, 2013 by Jafri. The High Court had on October 5, 2017 rejected criminal revision petition.

Among other reasons, the bench pointed out, persons not privy to the "stated meeting", where utterances were allegedly made by the then Chief Minister, falsely claimed themselves to be eye-witnesses and after thorough investigation by the SIT, it has become clear that their claim of being present in the meeting was itself false to their knowledge.

"On such false claim, the structure of larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level has been erected. The same stands collapsed like a house of cards, aftermath thorough investigation by the SIT," it said.

Besides exposing the falsity of the claims, the SIT has been able to collate materials, indicative of the amount of hard work and planning of the concerned state functionaries in their attempt to control the spontaneous evolving situation of mass violence across the state of Gujarat, despite the handicap of administration including the inadequate police force required to be replenished with central forces and Army, which were called without loss of time and the repeated appeals made by the then Chief Minister publicly to maintain peace, the court added.

It also pointed out the SIT had not found any conspiracy for linking the separate incidents of mass violence across the State during the investigation of nine separate crimes including the Godhra train incident, under the strict vigil and supervision of this court and ably assisted by Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran playing the role of devil’s advocate.

Jafri had mentioned names of 63 persons, involved in larger conspiracy and abetment of the crime resulting in carnage between February and May 2002. She had filed the complaint on June 8, 2006. This allegation was against the then Chief Minister and Ministers of the State, as well as high police officials and bureaucrats and others for having committed offence under Section 302 read with Section 120B, Section 193 read with Section 114 and Sections 185, 153A, 186 and 187 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the Commission of Inquiry Act, and also under various provisions of the Gujarat Police Act, and the Human Rights Act.