Gujarat court not to give final order on SIT closure report: SC

Supreme Court asked a Gujarat trial court not to pronounce its final order on closure report of SIT in the 2002 Gulburg Housing Society riot case.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked a Gujarat trial court not to pronounce its final order on the closure report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the 2002 Gulburg Housing Society riot case of Ahmedabad. "The final order on the closure report would not be pronounced," a bench of justices DK Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam said. The court also issued notice to the Gujarat government and sought its response on the plea of slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri`s widow seeking documents relating to the SIT probe into the Gulburg Society massacre case.

An Ahmedabad trial court had on November 27 accepted the SIT closure report filed on March 13, 2012 in the case. In another related development to the post-Godhra riots of 2002, senior advocate Harish Salve, who has been assisting the apex court as an amicus curiae in nine cases, said he would move an application for "relocating" key witnesses and for continuing with their security. The bench also expressed surprise that Justice G T Nanavati Commission, set up by the Gujarat Government to inquire into the riots, has summoned the SIT members and is asking for its report despite the apex court`s order making it clear that the probe panel`s report would be placed only before it. "Our earlier order is not vague. In fact, we have asked SIT that it will not divulge any information," the bench said. The apex court on September 12, 2011 had passed the order relating to supply of documents to Jafri`s widow, Zakia Jafri. It had also asked the SIT, headed by former CBI Director R K Raghavan, which probed the riot cases including the Ahmedabad Gulburg Housing Society massacre case in which former Congress MP Jafri had been killed, to forward its final report to the local court. PTI