Ehsaan Jafri case: SIT submits report, Zakia Jafri demands a copy

A day after the Gujarat High Court charged Chief Minister Narendra Modi of ‘inaction’ and ’negligence’ for post-Godhra riots in 2002, the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) report has come under severe criticism for giving a clean chit to Modi in the Ehsan Jafri case.

The report was submitted in a sealed envelope before a metropolitan court in Ahmedabad, on the directions of the Supreme Court. The two complainants in the case Zakia Jafri, and Teesta Setalvad have asked the court for a copy of the report and have filed a plea into the probe report.

It is learnt that the report gives a clean chit to Narendra Modi as the SIT found no “prosecutable evidence” against Narendra Modi and 60 others accused in the case.

Congress MP Ehsaan Jafri was brutally burnt alive outside his house in Gulbarg Housing Society when he tried to plead for the lives of women and children being killed in the society complex in February 2002. Ehsaan Jafri’s wife Zakia Jafri claims her husband had called the then chief minister Narendra Modi for help but to no avail.

The SIT report also notes that claims of former IPS officer Sanjeev Bhatt’s allegation that Chief Minister Modi had, at a meeting on 28 February 2002, ordered that rioters be given a free hand, are unsubstantiated. The report notes that the nine officials allegedly present at the meeting have denied the presence of Bhatt at the meeting.

The meeting was called to review law and order situation in the state following the Godhra train burning incident.

The Supreme Court had refused to take a stand on the merits of the case and had, instead, directed the SIT to submit a final report to a  trial court after studying the charges and evidences against Modi in the case. The order was immediately hailed by the Chief Minister and the BJP, as a vindication of their stand.

After the SIT placed its report before the court in which it found no prosecutable evidence against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Zakia said that she would fight back.

“I am really dissapointed with this report and I will not sit back with the report. We will consult our lawyers and then fight back,” she said.

The court is yet to study the SIT report.