Gulberg massacre: SC amicus curiae in state today

The amicus curiae of Supreme Court for the 2002 riots,Raju Ramachandran,is expected to be in Gujarat on Saturday. The Senior Advocate of SC would be coming to Gujarat for the first time after the apex court directed him to “independently” consider whether there is evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others in the Gulberg Society massacre case.

On May 6,the SC had taken an unprecedented stance to side-step its own Special Investigation Team (SIT). The SIT had submitted its status report on the complaint and Ramchandran had expressed his dissatisfaction with the same and pointed out several loopholes. Following this,the SC observed that it cannot overlook the objections of Ramchandran and side-stepped the SIT,asking Ramchandran to independently consider if there is evidence against Modi and others. The court has also given Ramchandran the liberty to directly interact with the witnesses and police officers named in the status report.

The SC had taken the stand while acting on a complaint filed by Zakia Jafri – widow of former Congress MP,Ehsan Jafri — against Modi and 62 others in connection with the Gulberg Society massacre case. Ehsan Jafri was one of the 69 persons killed in the massacre.