2002 Guj riots: 'Disgruntled officers who made false revelations need to be in dock'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday said disgruntled officers of the Gujarat government need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law for creating a sensation by making false revelations on the 2002 riots.

The top court also said it finds force in the argument of the State that the testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt (then IPS officer), Haren Pandya (former Gujarat home minister), and R B Sreekumar (now retired IPS officer) was only to sensationalise and politicise the matters in issue, "although, replete with falsehood."

Pandya was shot dead on March 26, 2003, near Law Garden in Ahmedabad.

The Apex Court said Bhatt and Pandya falsely claimed themselves to be eye-witnesses of the meeting in which utterances were allegedly made by the then Chief Minister and the Special Investigation Team has negated their claim. At the end of the day, it appears to us that a coalesced effort of the disgruntled officials of the State of Gujarat along with others was to create a sensation by making revelations which were false to their own knowledge.

The falsity of their claims had been fully exposed by the SIT after a thorough investigation, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said.

The Apex Court said the present proceedings (by Zakia Jafri) have been pursued for the last 16 years including with the audacity to question the integrity of every functionary involved in the process of exposing the devious stratagem adopted, to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design. As a matter of fact, all those involved in such abuse of process, need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with the law, the bench said. For, persons not privy to the stated meeting, where utterances were allegedly made by the then Chief Minister, falsely claimed themselves to be eye-witnesses, and after thorough investigation by the SIT, it has become clear that their claim of being present in the meeting was itself false to their knowledge, the bench said.

It said the false claim alleging structure of larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level stands collapsed like a house of cards, the aftermath of a thorough investigation by the SIT.

But, after thorough investigation by the SIT, the falsity of such claim has been fully exposed, the bench said.

Meanwhile, "Satyamev Jayate" was the unanimous reaction of BJP leaders after the Top Court upheld SIT's clean chit to PM Modi and 63 others in the case, and dismissed a plea by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia alleging a larger conspiracy.