Gujarat High Court adjourns hearing on Jafri's widow Zakia's plea

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court adjourned hearing on a plea filed by slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri’s wife Zakia Jafri to sort out some discrepancies in the translation of documents submitted by Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the 2002 riots case. [caption id=“attachment_2144137” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Zakia Jafri. AFP[/caption] Jafri had filed a plea before the Gujarat High Court challenging an order of the Ahmedabad metropolitan court which had upheld SIT’s clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 59 others in connection with the 2002 riots case. Justice SG Shah posted the matter for further hearing on 5 May after Zakia Jafri’s advocate MM Tirmizi showed some discrepancies in the translation of original documents. After this development, advocate AY Kogze of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) sought time to verify discrepancies, which led to the adjournment. The Gujarat High Court also ordered the translation branch of the registry and SIT to verify discrepancies in original documents. On 26 December, 2013, Metropolitan Magistrate BJ Ganatra had rejected Zakia’s protest petition challenging the SIT clean chit to Modi. On 15 March, Zakia had filed a petition before the high court and prayed for the rejection of the magisterial court’s order which had validated SIT’s closure report. Zakia Jafri’s petition had demanded “making Modi and 59 others accused in the 2002 riot cases”. The petition had alleged that the magistrate had simply accepted contentions in the closure report with “non-application of mind”. The petition had also alleged that the destruction of key records was carried out to ensure injustice to victims, an act in which the Chief Minister’s office and the home department were involved. On 8 February, 2012, the SIT had filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi and others. On 28 February, 2002, after the Godhra train carnage, 68 people, including former MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed by a mob at Gulberg Society here during the riots. PTI