2002 Guj riots: HC adjourns hearing on Zakia`s plea

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday 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 S G Shah has posted the hearing for October 15 after Zakia sought time to verify the translation of the voluminous documents in the case. On December 26 last year, Metropolitan Magistrate B J Ganatra here rejected Zakia`s protest petition challenging the Supreme Court-appointed SIT`s clean chit to Modi. On March 15, 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 February 8, 2012, the Supreme Court-appointed SIT had filed a closure report and given a clean chit to Modi and others. On February 28, 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.