11.2.12

SIT report on Gujarat riots



The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) has exonerated chief minister Narendra Modi from the charges of engineering the 2002 anti-Muslims riots in the state. It concluded that they were “a spontaneous reaction” to the killing of 59 Ram Sevaks in Godhra on February 27, 2002. There was no link between different incidents of violence in the Godhra carnage aftermath, ruling out the possibility of a larger conspiracy behind the communal violence across the state’s 18 districts the SIT said in its final report submitted to a metropolitan court on Wednesday. The report is based on a probe carried out on the petition of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri’s widow, Zakia Jafri. She had alleged there was a larger conspiracy. Ehsan Jafri was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre during the riots in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002. The SIT concluded that it found no evidence to establish the role of the state machinery in the communal carnage, thus exonerating all accused in Zakia’s petition. The panel’s findings have effectively cleared names of former minister Maya Kodnani, senior VHP leader Jaideep Patel, DySP K G Erda and former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi. The report said the four are being tried for their alleged involvement in the rioting incidents. But in connection with Jafri’s complaint, none of them have been found guilty of working in association with BJP leaders, the chief minister’s office, the police or the VHP. The SIT concluded that no meetings were held at any level before riots began on February 28, 2002.

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