Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi appears to be off the hook for now with the special investigation team headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghvan having “zeroed in” on three other persons — former minister of state for home Gordhan Zadaphia, who has now fallen out with Mr Modi and has even quit the BJP, former ADGP M.K. Tandon and IGP P.B. Gondia — and the Supreme Court permitting it to “go further” against them.
A bench of Justices D.K. Jain, P. Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, which perused three sets of SIT reports submitted in the past three months, allowed Mr Raghavan’s plea that the SIT be permitted to go further against the three.
Mr Raghavan had not named them and only referred to “three individuals”, but sources said it was clear that the SIT chief was referring to Mr Zadaphia, Mr Tandon and Mr Gondia.
The court had on April 27, 2009 mandated the SIT to investigate the complaint of Zakia Jafri against 65 persons, including Mr Narendra Modi and several others, accusing them of various “lapses” in controlling the 2002 riots.
The bench directed that a copy of the SIT report be given to amicus curiae Prashant Bhushan, assisting the court in the Jafri case, but rejected the plea to make it available to the Nanavati-Shah Commis-sion. “We direct the SIT not to divulge any information regarding this to any one except the trial court and the public prosecutors,” the bench ordered, giving the SIT time till September 30 to submit further reports.