By TwoCircles.net Correspondent,
Ahmedabad : Though almost two months have passed since the Supreme Court on March 27 ordered probe into the petition by Zakia Jafri against 63 persons, including Chief Minister Narendra Modi, about their roles in 2002 communal riots in the state, Special Investigation Team(SIT) has not even recorded the statements of the witnesses.
This was revealed in an affidavit submitted to the Gujarat High court by SIT convener Geetha Johri on Tuesday. The apex court had asked the SIT to complete the probe within three months and submit its report.
Johri submitted the affidavit in reply to former BJP legislator Kalu Maliwad’s petition challenging SIT probe against Modi and 62 others. Maliwad himself is an accused in Zakia’s complaint.
Zakia, wife of slain ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, had held the 63 accused responsible for the statewide riots of 2002 and murder of her husband in the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad.
In his petition, Maliwad had pleaded that SIT cannot conduct criminal investigation Zakia’s petition as no complaint had been registered in connection with the case. Maliwad had also contended that SIT could not arrest the people held accused in the complaint filed by Zakia . He had requested stay on the probe into the case as well as arrest of any of 63 persons.
The high court had issued notices to 13 parties, including SIT, Zakia, Teesta Setalvad of Centre for Justice and Peace on Maliwad’s petition . However, the high court had not stayed the probe into Zakia’s petition.
In reply to Maliwad’s petition, Johri told the court that SIT had yet not recorded statements of the witnesses in the case. However, she made it clear that Maliwad’s petition was an attempt to challenge the supreme court order and stated that the best course for Maliwad would to approach the apex court in this matter if he wanted some remedy.
When SIT lawyer K G Menon pointed out that SIT had not begun the probe into Zakia’s case because of Maliwad’s petition, Justice H N Devani retorted by saying that the court had not stayed the probe.
The court gave June 23 as the deadline for the rest of the 12 respondents to file their replies including Setalvad and fixed July 6 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
Zakia’s petition and apex court’s order to probe the roles of Modi and 62 others, including several ministers in 2002 and some top IAS and IPS officials assumes significance in the light of the fact that the petition has raised the question of an “overarching conspiracy’’ of the state in engineering the statewide riots and failure of the state machinery to check the violence and protect the life and property of citizens.