10 June : Investigation against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others is being carried as per law, Special Investigation Team (SIT) officials said.
SIT officials replying to a petition filed by a former BJP MLA, Kalubai Hirabhai Malivad in the Gujarat High Court, requesting to stay the investigations against Modi and others, said it raises ‘frivolous points’.
Malivad, who also figures in the list of 63 persons, contended in his petition that Apex Court had asked SIT to ‘look into’ the complaint, and this doesn’t empower it to investigate the case as per provisions of CrPC, as there was no FIR registered in this case.
Gujarat High Court has issued notices to the State government and all SIT members and asked to file a reply by 16th June.
The Supreme Court had last month ordered SIT to probe within three months a complaint made by ex-MP Ehsaan Jaffrey’s widow Zakia Jaffrey that Modi, his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats aided and abetted post-Godhra riots of 2002.
"The Apex Court has said in its order to probe the complaint as per law and that is what we are doing. The petition filed in the High Court have raised some frivolous issues. We will be submitting reply in the court soon," they added.
SIT chief R K Raghavan is on a two-day visit to the state to assess the progress on various issues related to cases being probed by the agency.
Two newly inducted members of the SIT, who are ex-CBI officials — Paramveer Singh and A K Malhotra — are also in Ahmedabad and they held meetings with the SIT officials.
On Tuesday, SIT also finalised the name of M V Damor, Commandant of the State Reserve Police, Gandhinagar Unit, as incharge of the witness protection programme.
The Apex Court had stressed on having a special witness protection programme while lifting stay on trials of the nine cases probed by SIT.
The Apex Court had also ordered setting up of special fast-track courts to conduct trials in the cases which will be conducted on day-to-day basis.