The Congress party on Monday, 27 June, said that it was "deeply disappointed" by the Supreme Court's decision on the petition filed by Zakia Jafri – wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
In a statement, Jairam Ramesh, the general secretary and communications incharge of All India Congress Committee (AICC) said:
"We stand by our colleague, the late Ehsan Jafri and his family in this hour. What happened to him in a most tragic manner was the result of a fundamental lapse on the part of the state government."
Stating that Zakia's plea was "devoid of merits," the apex court had on Friday, 24 June, dismissed it and upheld a magistrate court's decision to accept the final report submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the case.
She had challenged the clean chit given by the SIT to the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the alleged larger conspiracy behind the riots. Zakia had also sought a probe of the alleged larger conspiracy.
'Judgment Has Not Answered Fundamental Questions': AICC
AICC's statement noted that the judgment pronounced by the Supreme Court on Friday has not answered the following fundamental questions:
"What is the Constitutional and moral responsibility of the Chief Minister and State Government in cases of large-scale communal riots?
Is the responsibility in such cases, only ever that of the Collector & Dy. Commissioner of Police and not of political executive?
Will the Chief Minister, Cabinet and State Government never be held accountable, even if a State is thrown into a circle of violence and riots?"
Listing five of the following questions, the AICC said that these questions will continue to "haunt Prime Minister Narendra Modi."
Was PM Modi not the chief minister of Gujarat when the horrific riots took place in 2002?
Why was PM Vajpayee so affected by his lack of action that he had to publicly remind him to do his duty, to follow his ‘Rajdharma’?
Was it not the Supreme Court who called out the conduct of the Modi government in Gujarat as that of “Modern day Nero’s (who) were looking elsewhere when… innocent children and helpless women were burning, and were probably deliberating how the perpetrators of the crime can be saved or protected”?
Why did sections of the BJP, including the member of the present Modi Cabinet, Smriti Irani protest and call for his dismissal as CM if he was not guilty of any wrongdoing?
What about all the numerous convictions that have been carried out on the basis of the evidence collected by the SIT relating to the Gujarat riots? Can the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claim that those also stand invalidated?
"No amount of propaganda by the BJP can ever erase these facts," the statement further noted.
Background
Pronouncing the operative part of the order, the top court also said that it does not "countenance" the submission of the petitioner regarding infraction of rule of law during the probe.
“We do not countenance the submission of the appellant regarding infraction of rule of law in the matter of investigation and the approach of the Magistrate and the High Court in dealing with the final report,” the Supreme Court said.
The apex court had reserved judgment in the matter on 9 December 2021.
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