New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the
Gujarat government to furnish without delay all documents,
including the alleged inflammatory speeches made by Chief
Minister Narendra Modi, to the Special Investigation Team
probing post-Godhra 2002 communal riots in the state.
A bench of Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam
rejected the state government's argument that the documents
sought by SIT may not have relevance to investigations.
"According to SIT, the statement made by the Chief
Minister has some relevance. What is wrong if you make it
available?" the bench said while directing Gujarat government
to hand over without further delay all documents required by
SIT.
The apex court passed the direction on the basis of an
interim report submitted by SIT headed by former CBI director
R K Raghavan complaining that certain documents relevant to
the ongoing probe were not being furnished by the state
government despite requests.
The documents allegedly being denied by the government
included transcripts of an allegedly inflammatory speech made
by Modi in September 2000 after the Godhra train carnage.
The bench also declined to grant five months time sought
by SIT to submit its reports and asked the probe team to come
out with its report to the court by April 30.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 20:07