SC dismisses Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging SIT's clean chit to Modi, 63 others
Highlights
- SC rejected Jafri's protest petition against the closure report filed by the SIT
- Top court said Jafri's appeal is devoid of merits & deserves to be dismissed
- Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002
Gujarat riots 2002 case: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging SIT's clean chit to 64 people, including then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi. The Apex Court upheld the Gujarat High Court order, saying Zakia Jafri's appeal is devoid of merits & deserves to be dismissed.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar upheld the Special Metropolitan Magistrate's order rejecting Jafri's protest petition against the closure report filed by the SIT. She is the wife of slain MP Ehsan Jafri.
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Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed in Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after a coach of the Sabarmati Express was burnt at Godhra killing 59 people and triggering riots in Gujarat.
On October 26, the apex court had said it would like to peruse the closure report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) giving the clean chit to 64 persons and the justification given by the magisterial court while accepting it.
Sibal had earlier argued that Jafri's complaint was that there was “a larger conspiracy where there was bureaucratic inaction, police complicity, hate speeches and unleashing of violence".
On February 8, 2012, the SIT had filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi, now the prime minister, and 63 others, including senior government officials, saying there was "no prosecutable evidence" against them. Zakia Jafri had filed a petition in the apex court in 2018 challenging the Gujarat High Court's October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the decision of the SIT.
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