Probe Modi’s role in riots, SC tells spl team

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the special investigation team (SIT) appointed by it to probe the role of chief minister Narendra Modi and 62 others, including his cabinet colleagues and police officers, in the post-Godhra violence.

The Congress immediately latched on to the case, urging Modi to step down. The BJP, as expected, rejected the demand while the Gujarat government called the Supreme Court order a “routine procedure”.

Jakia Nasim Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed with 38 others in Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg Society on February 28, 2002, had filed a petition in the apex court alleging that Modi and his administration had abetted the murder of her husband and innocents.

The killings took place in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage, in which two compartments of the Sabarmati Express were allegedly set on fire, killing more than 50 karsewaks returning from Ayodhya on February 27, 2002.

A bench of justice Arijit Pasayat and justice AK Ganguly said: “The SIT (headed by former CBI director RK Raghavan) will inquire into the complaint made by the petitioner (Jakia) and file its report within three months.”

On June 8, 2006, Jafri filed a complaint alleging that the police did not register an FIR in the Gulbarg Society massacre. On November 3, 2007, the Gujarat High Court refused to give any direction in the matter and asked Jafri to move the magistrate concerned for relief. She then approached the Supreme Court.