“We say the conspiracy was hatched by Acharya Giriraj Kishore of the VHP who was escorted by police to the Sola Civil Hospital (where the bodies lay). An apex court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) probed Zakia’s riot conspiracy charges against Modi, other ministers and police bosses and absolved them in 2012. The trial court accepted the SIT’s closure report in 2013 and Gujarat High Court upheld the decision in 2017, prompting Zakia to approach the Supreme Court. Neither the judicial magistrate nor Gujarat High Court looked into these shortcomings. # To a query from Justice Khanwilkar on the SIT’s response to the Tehelka portal’s purported sting operation, which allegedly buttressed the charge of conspiracy, Sibal said the agency had rejected it as irrelevant since it contained extrajudicial confessions.

Source: The Telegraph November 11, 2021 12:06 UTC