New Delhi: The Gujarat High Court on Friday rejected a petition which sought a stay on the Special Investigation Team (SIT) from questioning Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others in a 2002 communal riot case.
The petition was filed by former BJP MLA Kalu Maliwad, who challenged the Supreme Court’s order asking the SIT to “look into” a complaint by Zakia Jafri, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among those burnt alive in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad in 2002.
Zakia Jafri has made accusations against Modi and 62 others, including senior bureaucrats and police officers, and demanded a fresh investigation into their role in the Gulberg Society massacre.
Maliwad claimed that the Supreme Court had not issued any specific direction to the SIT, and the probe team doesn’t have the power to summon or question the accused.
At least 1,180 people, mostly Muslims, died in riots in Gujarat which began after a train carrying Hindu activists was set ablaze at the Godhra railway station in 2002. The cause of the fire has not been clearly established with two government-appointed panels giving differing versions.
The SIT, which has been set up on the Supreme Court’s order, comprises former Central Bureau of Investigation director R K Raghavan., former director general of Uttar Pradesh Police C D Satpathy and three IPS officers from Gujarat: Geeta Johri, Shivanand Jha and Ashish Bhat.
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