Zakia Jafri moves HC, questions SIT clean chit to Modi in 2002 riots

Ahmedabad: Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, today approached the Gujarat High Court challenging the Ahmedabad metropolitan court order upholding SIT’s clean chit to Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi and others in connection with the 2002 riots case. “We have challenged the metropolitan court’s order which validates clean chit to Chief Minister Narendra Modi,” social activist Teesta Setalwad told PTI here. The petition filed before the High Court demands to make Narendra Modi and 59 others accused on the charges of criminal conspiracy behind the riots. [caption id=“attachment_1439357” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jafri has questioned the validity of the SIT report. AFP[/caption] “The Metropolitan Judge has simply accepted the contentions in the closure report of SIT without considering substantive arguments of the applicant (Zakia),” the petition reads. On 26 December last year, metropolitan magistrate BJ Ganatra had rejected Zakia Jafri’s protest petition challenging the SIT clean chit to Modi. On 8 February, 2012, the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) had filed a closure report and given a clean chit to Modi and others. “SIT has not conducted free and fair investigation against the accused no. 1 (Modi),” the petitioner alleged. The High Court is likely to conduct the hearing on Zakia’s petition on 20 March. On 28 February, 2002, following the Godhra train carnage, 68 people, including former MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed by a mob at Gulbarg Society here during the riots. PTI