SIT rejects amicus curiae's observations against Modi

May 10, 2012

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Ahmedabad, May 10: The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has totally disagreed with the observations of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran, and said no case can be made out against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 communal riots under any of the Sections of the Indian Penal Code mentioned by him.

Mr. Ramachandran, in his report, which formed part of the SIT closure report submitted in the Ahmedabad metropolitan court, observed that prima facie offences under Sections 153 A (1)(a) and (b), 153 B (1)(c), 166 and 505 (2) of the IPC could be made out against Mr. Modi for his alleged “instructions” to police officers to “go soft on the Hindu rioters” and his subsequent role in handling the riots and alleged offensive media statements that could have contributed to instigating violence.

Giving point-by-point answers to all observations made by the amicus curiae after investigating the charges, as directed by the Supreme Court, the SIT said: “The offences under the aforesaid sections of law are not made out against Mr. Modi.” The report signed by the investigation officer in the Zakia Jafri petition case, Deputy Commissioner of Police Himanshu Shukla, said, “in the light of the aforesaid facts, a closure report in being submitted for favour of perusal and orders.”

(Ms. Jafri, wife of the slain former Congress MP Ahesan Jafri, levelled serious charges against Mr. Modi and 62 others in connection with the communal riots.)

The SIT dismissed as “false and fabricated documents” two “fax messages” claimed to have been sent by the suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was then Deputy Commissioner in the State intelligence branch, to the Chief Minister and Minister of State for Home Gordhan Jhadafiya, with copies to the Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, the State police control room and others, alerting them about the developing communal situation.

The “fax messages,” which claimed that the Chief Minister was informed in advance of the tension building up in Gulberg Society and that the city Police Commissioner was informed of the need for advanced preparations for possible communal repercussions in view of the government's decision to bring the bodies of the victims of the Godhra train carnage to Ahmedabad, were cited as examples of “dereliction of duty” on the part of the Chief Minister, his Cabinet colleagues and the senior police officers.

Concocted fax messages

The SIT found that no such fax messages ever existed and that these were concocted by Mr. Bhatt at a much later stage and the signatures of his superior officers were forged. Neither those claimed to be recipients nor the purported senders in the State or city police control rooms or the control room of the Home Ministry remembered anything about receiving or sending any such message. Office records did not show the existence of any such message and there also was no mention of the numbering of these messages in the subsequent official messages, which normally was the practice.

The SIT report pointed out that Mr. Bhatt himself did not mention about the existence of these messages in any of the affidavits or statements he had filed before numerous authorities all these years. For the first time, he produced a “copy” of the messages before the G. T. Nanavati-Akshay Mehta Judicial Enquiry Commission in December last and subsequently before the SIT in January this year.

Pointing out that Mr. Bhatt did not mention about the fax messages when SIT official A. K. Malhotra questioned him in connection with the Zakia Jafri petition in 2009, nor during the investigation by Mr Shukla in 2010, the SIT report said: “The oral and documentary evidence available on record would therefore conclusively prove that these fax messages now produced by Mr. Bhatt have been fabricated subsequently with an ulterior motive. No reliance can, therefore, be placed upon both these fax messages.” The SIT virtually exonerated the then Police Commissioner, P. C. Pande, his deputies M. K. Tandon and P. B. Gondia and some other police officers of the charge of dereliction of duty, and said the investigation proved that they had tried to curb the riots to the best of their ability given the limited resources available at their command to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation. When the police arrived at any scene of riot, “the violent mobs hid themselves in lanes and bylanes and regrouped and resumed violence” as soon as the police left to attend another complaint. The SIT said it was not possible to withdraw the entire police force from the known communally sensitive areas for deployment in areas like Gulberg Society or Naroda-Patiya which had no communal history in the past.

Appreciation for Pande's role

The SIT appreciated the role played by Mr. Pande in dismissing a mob which was attempting to set fire to a dargah adjacent to the Police Commissioner's office. It pointed out that Mr. Pande heard some noise when he was in the office in the afternoon of February 28, 2002, and came to know that a mob was trying to vandalise the dargah. With the available police force by then dispatched to Gulberg Society, he took only an armed guard and succeeded in chasing away the violent mob and saved the dargah.

The SIT report, giving details of the roles played by different police officers and how they attempted to handle the situation, said there was no indication that the police were given any instruction from the higher-ups not to act or leave the affected areas to the mercy of the riotous mobs.

About the observation by the amicus curiae that the then Vishwa Hindu Parishad State general secretary Jaideep Patel being “handed over” bodies of the train carnage victims for transport to Ahmedabad was indicative of an instruction having come from “somebody very high,” the SIT pointed out that all through the journey by road from Godhra the five trucks which carried the bodies were accompanied by the police officers concerned and handed over to the police officers in charge at the Sola civil hospital in Ahmedabad. As the bodies were those of VHP kar sevaks, Mr Patel was allowed to accompany the police during the journey. The then Godhra mamlatdar and executive magistrate, M. L. Nalvaya, “erroneously” prepared the handing over papers in the name of Mr. Patel, for which the SIT recommended departmental action against him. But there was nothing to show that Mr. Modi had ordered the “handing over” of the bodies to Mr. Patel.

The SIT also dismissed Mr. Ramachandran's observations about “positioning of the two Cabinet Ministers at the instruction of Mr. Modi” in the State and the city police control rooms with the intention of interfering with the police functioning, and said its investigation proved that late Ashok Bhatt did not visit the city police control room except briefly on March 1 to pick up the then Defence Minister, George Fernandes, who was discussing with the City Police Commissioner deployment of the Army. The then Urban Development Minister did visit the State police headquarters in Gandhinagar for about a couple of hours on February 28, but was made to sit in an empty cabin and he never entered the control room. “There is no proof that they were either acting at the instruction of the Chief Minister or had even once interfered with the police functioning.”

Charges not substantiated

The report said the allegations of Mr. Modi making provocative statements over the media could not be substantiated. The allegation of his having told Zee TV in an interview that the Gulberg Society massacre was the “result of the provocative firing from inside” by Ahesan Jafri could not be established as the channel, despite several reminders, did not produce the CD of the recording. The second instance of The Times of India quoting him on Newton's theory of action and reaction to justify the riots as a reaction to the Godhra train carnage was also found baseless. The State Information Department promptly issued a denial that Mr. Modi did not speak to The Times of India at all and the newspaper was forced to carry the denial, though deliberately in an obscure corner, the SIT said.

It also dealt with the alleged “shoddy” handling of the post-riot situation by the government under Mr. Modi, and said action was recommended against the officers responsible for inaccurate police investigations or the alleged “political appointments” of special public prosecutors to handle the riot-related cases.

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News Network
January 13,2020

New Delhi, Jan 13: The Supreme Court on Monday commenced hearing on issues related to discrimination against women in various religions and at religious places including Kerala's Sabarimala Temple.

A nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said that it was not considering review pleas in the Sabarimala case.

“We are not hearing review pleas of Sabarimala case. We are considering issues referred to by a 5-judge bench earlier,” the bench said.

The apex court had on November 14 asked a larger bench to re-examine various religious issues, including the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple and mosques and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

While the five-judge bench unanimously agreed to refer religious issues to a larger bench, it gave a 3:2 split decision on petitions seeking a review of the apex court's September 2018 decision allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala.

A majority verdict by then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra decided to keep pending pleas seeking a review of its decision regarding entry of women into the shrine, and said restrictions on women in religious places was not restricted to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions as well.

The minority verdict by Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud gave a dissenting view by dismissing all review pleas and directing compliance of its September 28 decision.

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News Network
February 11,2020

Aligarh, Feb 11: Paediatrician Dr Kafeel Khan, who was arrested from Mumbai on January 29 after he delivered a speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) against communalism and politics of hate, will be released from jail on Tuesday after he was granted bail by an Aligarh court.

Khan will be released from Mathura jail on Tuesday after legal formalities are completed.

Chief judicial magistrate Karuna Singh granted bail to Khan on Monday on a bail bond of Rs 60,000. Two surety bonds of Rs 60,000 each would also be furnished by the guarantors.

Dr Khan's lawyer, Mohammad Irfan Gazi, told reporters, "The court was told that Khan was falsely implicated by police under political pressure. After hearing the arguments, the court granted him bail."

The suspended doctor was arrested by special task force (STF) of the UP police from Mumbai on January 29, when he reached the city to attend a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

He was arrested in connection with a case registered against him in Aligarh under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) of the Indian Penal Code at Civil Lines police station on December 13

The case was filed after his speech at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

According to the FIR, while addressing students, without naming anyone, Dr Kafeel Khan said that 'Mota Bhai' is teaching everyone to become Hindu or Muslim but not a human being. "This is a fight for our existence. We have to fight."

The FIR also said that Dr Kafeel Khan made an attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere and disturb the communal harmony with his speech.

Dr Khan was in the news in 2017 when he was named as one of the nine accused in a case involving deaths of several children due to alleged disruption in supply of oxygen at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur. Though he was granted clean chit in a departmental inquiry, his suspension has not yet been revoked.

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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, Jun 8: Places of worship on Monday across the country reopened after staying shut since March due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown.

Scores of temples, mosques and gurudwaras were seen opening up keeping in view the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by Union Home Ministry to prevent coronavirus spread.

As per Ministry of Health guidelines, touching of idols/holy books, choir/singing groups, etc are not allowed.

In Delhi, people gathered at Gauri Shankar Temple in Chandni Chowk to offer prayers. With national capital seeing a rise in coronavirus cases, the devotees were seen wearing masks and taking precautions. People were also seen offering prayers at Kalka Ji Temple.

Several people arrived at Sri Bangla Sahib Gurudwara to offer prayers. Devotees were made to pass through the disinfectant tunnel before entering the Gurdwara in order to prevent the virus.

In Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath offered prayers at Gorakhnath Temple after state government allowed re-opening of places of worship from today.

Devotees were seen offering prayers at Eidgah Mosque in Lucknow.

Devotees also offered prayers at Shree Dodda Ganapathi Temple in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru.

Hanuman Garhi Temple in Ayodhya also reopened on Monday.

Prayers were offered at Durga Mata Mandir near Jagraon Bridge in Ludhiana, as the government has allowed reopening of places of worship.

Although religious places have opened in most of the states, however, there are some states which are yet to do so.

Preparations related to Yatra of Char Dhams including Badrinath have been completed, however, local representative of the areas from where the routes of this yatra pass have requested the government to not allow the commencement of the Yatra.

Based on the assessment of the situation, the Odisha Government ordered that all religious places/places of worship for the public will continue to remain closed till June 30.

Earlier, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that religious places and places of worship for public, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services along with shopping malls will be permitted to open from June 8.

However, these facilities will not be able to resume operations inside containment zones designated by authorities in states.

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