SIT followed apex court mandate on riots probe: Court told

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which probed post-Godhra riot cases, had carried out its task as per the mandate given by the Supreme Court, the inquiry panel's lawyer told a court here today.
"I'm the child of Supreme Court, not of NGOs," lawyer R S Jamuar said, arguing the SIT had conducted investigation as directed by the apex court.
"The investigation conducted by the SIT was within the parameters of law, the Constitution and as mandated by the Supreme Court," he told Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra.
He was replying to issues raised by lawyers of Zakia Jafri, a riot victim, during arguments on the petition filed by her in protest against SIT report giving a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others for their alleged role in the violence, in which over 1,000 people were killed.

Jafri, whose husband - a former Congress MP - was killed by a violent mob that attacked Gulberg Housing Society here, has demanded that the report be rejected by the court and an order be passed to file a charge sheet against Modi and others in connection with the communal riots.
Jafri's lawyers have claimed the SC-constituted panel had failed to investigate the aspect of larger conspiracy allegedly hatched by the Chief Minister and others.
About the charge that allegations levelled by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with regards to riots were not probed, he said, "The NHRC (issue) was looked into by the Supreme Court. Can then the SIT look into NHRC allegations? I'm not going to commit contempt of Supreme Court order. This is too much to expect from SIT."

"We've complied with what we were told to do. If there was any lacunae in investigation carried out by us, the apex court would have ordered us to investigate further. But, it did not do so," the SIT counsel submitted.