Law Minister Salman Khurshid today said the decision of the Supreme Court not to further monitor the Gujarat riots case was in no way a clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP was reacting even before the issue has been settled by the judiciary.
He contended that the SIT report was still not in the public domain and "the Supreme Court has said the SIT must put its report before the magistrate (in Ahmedabad)...All this is still to happen and the BJP are claiming they are in the clean and are acquitted."
"I want to know whether they are privy to inside records of the Supreme Court, the high court or the trial court," Khurshid quipped.
In response to a question, Khurshid told reporters the issue has to be decided by the magistrate and "neither (BJP leader) Arun Jaitley nor I can decide outside the court".
The Minister said the apex court has said that it cannot monitor the case after the charge sheet has been filed but it has monitored the case till the point the charge sheet was filed.
In its order, the apex court has directed the SIT to submit its final report in the riots cases before the magistrate concerned in Ahmedabad.
The trial court has been asked by the Supreme Court to decide whether to proceed against Modi and 63 others, who include senior government officials for alleged inaction in containing the riots.
