The special investigation team probing the 2002 Gujarat pogrom has denied any larger conspiracy, telling the Supreme Court that army troops were flown in within three hours of the riots erupting and then chief minister Narendra Modi had “outrightly condemned” the violence.

Representing the SIT, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi told the bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravi Kumar on Thursday that the “chief minister outrightly condemned the violence”.

“The army personnel were airlifted…. If the allegations of conspiracy are true, the army would not have been called within three hours of the riots erupting,” he said.

The bench is hearing a petition from Zakia Jafri, wife of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri who was burnt alive with 68 others at Gulbarg Society, challenging the clean chit given to Modi, other ministers and police officers from complicity in the riots.

The SIT, which had probed the riots following an apex court directive, filed a closure report in February 2012, which the trial court accepted in December 2013. Gujarat High Court upheld the order.

The arguments will continue on December 1.