2002 Gujarat riots: HC adjourns hearing on Zakia's plea against Modi

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court today adjourned hearing on a petition of Zakia Jafri, the widow of slain ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a local court order upholding a clean chit given by SIT to the then chief minister Narendra Modi and others in a 2002 riots case. Justice SG Shah has posted the hearing for 15 October after Zakia sought time to verify the translation of the voluminous documents in the case. [caption id=“attachment_1620009” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Zakia Jafri in a file photo. AFP[/caption] On 26 December last year, Metropolitan Magistrate BJ Ganatra here rejected Zakia’s protest petition challenging the Supreme Court-appointed SIT’s clean chit to Modi. On 15 March, she moved the high court against the magistrate’s order upholding the SIT’s closure report. Her petition seeks “to make Modi and 59 others accused on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit a mass murder, arson… And also tampering with evidence and destroying records of the Gujarat Home Department”. The petition alleges that the magistrate accepted SIT’s closure report with a “non-application of mind”. It also alleges that destruction of key records was carried out to ensure injustice to the victims, in which the Chief Minister’s office and the state home department were allegedly involved. On 8 February, 2012, the Supreme Court-appointed SIT had filed a closure report and given a clean chit to Modi and others. On 28 February, 2002, following the Godhra train fire incident, 68 people including Ehsan Jafri were killed by a mob at Gulbarg Society here, as riots swept many parts of Gujarat. PTI