In a major setback to the BJP and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, the report of senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who had been appointed amicus curiae in the Gulberg Society case by the Supreme Court, has nailed Mr Modi saying that criminal offences can be made against him under various Indian Penal Code sections, and that his role needs to be probed further.
Interestingly, Mr Ramachandran’s indictment of Mr Modi is at total variance with the findings of the special investigation team, headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghavan, which had given a clean chit to the Gujarat CM some time ago.
The BJP, as expected, was quick to downplay the amicus curiae’s report. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said: “The SIT’s report is final and categorical. There is no provision in the courts of India for the opinion of a lawyer or an amicus curiae. Investigation is a police function, not a lawyer’s. The chargesheet or the trial is going to be on the basis of what the SIT says.”
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari, continuing to maintain Mr Modi was “guilty”, noted that “former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has already certified that raj dharma was not observed in Gujarat”. This refers to a remark attributed to Mr Vajpayee soon after the 2002 riots.
Besides causing political embarrassment to Mr Modi and his party, Mr Ramachandran’s report comes as a shot in the arm for the family of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who with 63 others were lynched by a mob at Gulberg Society.
A copy of both the SIT and the amicus curiae’s reports were provided on Monday to Jafri’s widow, Zakia Jafri.