Gujarat Govt. committed to ensure that 2002 riots case victims get justice: Vyas

Ahmedabad, Sep 12 (ANI): Welcoming the Supreme Court's verdict into the 2002 Gulbarg Society massacre case, the Gujarat Government on Monday expressed its commitment to ensure that the victims get justice as early as possible

"The Supreme Court judgement today is a welcome development, as it has comer after completion of due process of law based upon the independent investigation and reports by the SIT taking into consideration every aspect that was placed before it. With this, the due process of law has been completed. The apex court of the country has now directed the concerned courts to deal with the matter fully expressing the confidence in the judicial process," said Gujarat Government spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas.

Vyas said the SIT was constituted by the apex court on the plea of certain sections doubting the police investigation in the case.

"While SIT completed the report, Mrs. Jafri's application came before the apex court which was also entrusted for further investigations to the SIT. This report was then referred to the amicus curae and SIT commented on the observations. The SIT investigations have set to knot the theory of political conspiracy and the involvement of the Chief Minister in the post Godhra riots. The Supreme Court also has rejected the demand of handing over the investigations to the CBI endorsing the SIT report," said Vyas.

"With this, the monitoring of the Supreme Court also would end and the due process of law will be carried out at the appropriate level. If certain sections of the NGOs and others had not obstructed this process, the victim would have got the justice long back. The state government expresses its commitment to ensure that the victims should get justice as early as possible and work towards that end," he added.

Asserting that there is no evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi into the case, Vyas further said the trial court would deal accordingly against all those, whose name crop up in the SIT report.

"In all these cases that there is no evidence-pointing finger towards the chief minister for criminal conspiracy and against those whom the SIT report might find involved, the trial court will deal with the case accordingly," he said.

In a relief to Modi, the apex court earlier in the day refused to pass any order on his alleged inaction to contain the 2002 Gujarat riots after the Godhra carnage and referred the matter to the concerned magistrate in Ahmedabad for a decision.

A three-judge apex court bench headed by Justice D K Jain directed the SIT, which is probing the riot cases, to submit its final report before the magistrate who was asked to decide whether to proceed against Modi and 63 others, which includes senior government officials.

The bench made it clear that there was no need for it to further monitor the riot cases.

The bench, which also comprised Justices P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, said in case the magistrate decides to drop proceedings against Modi and others, he has to hear the plea of slain MP Ehsan Jafri's widow Zakia Jafri, who had filed a complaint against the Gujarat Chief Minister.

The apex court passed the order on a petition by Zakia Jafri alleging that Modi and 62 top government officials deliberately refused to take action to contain the state-wide riots, triggered by the February 27, 2002 Godhra train carnage. (ANI)