Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In a breather to Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by an advocate questioning the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe giving clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister in 2002 riots in the state.

Describing the plea as `baseless`, the apex court also declined the appeal to reconstitute SIT involving retired judges of the apex court, including a person from the minority community.

"Reconstitution of SIT at this stage is not good," a bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde said, referring the plea questioning the SIT clean chit given to the BJP`s Prime Ministerial candidate.

After the bench`s remark, Advocate Fatima A, who had filed the petition, decided to withdraw it which was allowed.

Fatima, who appeared in person, took the court through her pleading and sought reconstitution of the SIT having three retired judges on it. Justice Dattu asked her three retired judges of which court - high court or SC.

As Fatima said three retired judges of the Supreme Court, Justice Dattu said, "We don`t have" and the court declined the plea.

However, the court allowed the advocate to withdraw her plea and dismissed it as withdrawn.

The SIT had given clean chit to Modi for his alleged inaction during the riots.

On April 04, the Supreme Court had expressed satisfaction over probes by the SIT in nine cases related to the 2002 riots in Gujarat post Godhra.

The bench of Justice HL Dattu, Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice MY Eqbal appreciated the work done by the SIT headed by former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director RK Raghvan as it perused the SIT`s February 27 status report.

The nine cases investigated by the SIT included those related to riots in Gulbarg Society, Sardarpura, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Machipith, Ode, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghavapura.

In Gulberg Society carnage, 37 people, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed. The rampaging mob targeted members of a particular community in the Ahmedabad neighbourhood which was set on fire on February 28, 2002.

The petition was filed by Zakia Jafri, the widow of Congress parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the attack. She alleged deliberate inaction on the part of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 63 others, including his some cabinet colleagues and other higher officials, at the time of the Gulberg Society carnage.