The Supreme Court today restored the right of
Complainant and Survivor Smt Zakia Jafri to access all documents
related to the SIT investigation that were submitted to the Supreme
Court between May 2010 and July-August 2011 to enable her to file
her protest petition against the SIT’s closure report exonerating
chief Minister Narendra Modi and 61 others. The SC in its order
today also struck down the two orders of the Magistrate Ganatra’s
Order denying her these documents (16.7.2012) and shockingly,
closing her right to file a protest petition (27.11.2012). The Court
has directed that the complainants file her protest petition within
eight weeks of receiving all the said documents. Amicus Curaie in
the matter, Shri Raju Ramachandran who had been asked by the Court
to assist the Court also filed a note supporting the Complainant’s
right to access all documents.
Smt Zakia Jafri had, on 8.6.2006 filed a complaint
alleging a sinister and wide level conspiracy to allow violence,
deliberately subvert the strict directions to maintain order that
led to the loss of over 2,500 minority lives. Chief Minister
Narendra Modi, cabinet colleagues, senior IPS and IAS officers are
among the 61 accused in this complaint. The Supreme Court had
ordered investigation into the allegations on 27.4.2009 in the
special leave petition filed by Smt Jafri and the Citizens for
Justice and Peace. (SLP 1088/2008) Finally on 12.9.2011 the Supreme
Court had directed that the matter be placed for consideration
before a Magistrate under Section 173(2) and all documents related
to the investigation be provided to the complainant.
We had been praying for the right to get access to
all investigations reports under Section 173(8) of the CRPC. Ever
since the matter came up before the Magistrate in Ahmedabad, the SIT
has been resisting making any documents available. An earlier
Magistrate Bhatt (later transferred) granted Smt Jafri documents by
an order dated 10.4.2012. Even after that, the SIT has been doggedly
trying to conceal those further investigation reports that were
submitted before the Supreme Court by Shri Malhotra and Shri
Raghavan between May 2010 and July 2011 as they take a very
different view from the Final Closure Report submitted by Himanshu
Shukla on 8.2.2012. In his two reports to the Supreme Court, Amicus
Curiae Shri Raju Ramachandran had come to the conclusion that there
was sufficient material to prosecute chief minister Narendra Modi
and at least two senior policemen.
This Special Leave Petition filed by Smt Jafri
assisted by Citizens for Justice and Peace was specifically filed to
get clarity on the Order of the Supreme Court that the SIT came
misinterpreting before the Magistrate (SLP 8989/2012). This first
came up for hearing on December 3, 2012. On December 10 last year
the SC had asked Chairman SIT RK Raghavan to answer how previous
statements of accused collected during investigation had not been
made available to the complainant. Thereafter on December 15, 2012
about 1500 pages of documents were made available.
Senior advocates Kamini Jaiswal and Sanjay Parikh appeared for Smt
Jafri and CJP assisted by Ms. Aparna Bhat and Mr. Ramesh Pukhrambam.
Advocate Mihir Desai has also been appearing in this matter.
Teesta Setalvad
Secretary and Trustee
Other
Trustees:
I.M. Kadri
Nandan Maluste Cyrus Guzder
Arvind Krishnaswamy Javed Akhtar
Alyque Padamsee
Anil Dharker
Ghulam Pesh Imam Cedric Prakash
Rahul Bose
Javed Anand