SIT submits final report on Gujarat riots

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the 2002 communal riots, on Monday submitted its final report in Supreme Court.

The SIT had grilled all people allegedly linked with the riots, including Gujarat Chief Minister.

Appearing before the Supreme Court-constituted SIT for the first time in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, Modi had said he acted as a ?responsible citizen? by responding to the summon of the probe panel.

Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, had named Modi as one of the accused in a petition, on the basis of which Modi was summoned.

The MP was killed by rioters in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

Zakia accused Modi and 62 others of conspiracy during the riots in the case filed in the Supreme Court.

According to her, senior ministers ordered bureaucrats and policemen not to respond to calls for help.

Meanwhile, the SIT was accused by senior senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Sanjiv Rajendra Bhatt for shielding Modi.

Bhatt has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court naming Modi in connection with the Godhra case and said the police ?blindly? followed the CM?s instructions that led to the decline of law and order in the state.

Bhatt alleged that the SIT is trying to ?shield? Modi.

He said the SIT was ?reluctant? to record his witness in the case and after his repeated requests they took his statement, but did not act on it.

The infamous Gujarat riots of 2002 left hundreds of Muslims dead, injured and tortured and came as a blot in the BJP rule. The riots followed an incident of train burning in Godhra in which Hindus returning from Ayodhya were killed by a Muslim mob.