2002 riots: Zakia Jafri moves Gujarat HC against clean chit to Narendra Modi

Zakia Jafri moved Gujarat High Court on Tuesday against a lower court order accepting SIT`s clean chit given to Narendra Modi, others in 2002 Gulbarg Society riot case.

Zee Media Bureau

Ahmedabad: Zakia Jafri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, moved Gujarat High Court on Tuesday against a lower court order accepting SIT`s clean chit given to Narendra Modi, others in 2002 Gulbarg Society riot 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. "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 December 26 last year, metropolitan magistrate BJ Ganatra had rejected Zakia Jafri`s protest petition challenging the SIT clean chit to Modi. On February 8, 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 number one (Modi)," the petitioner alleged. The High Court is likely to conduct the hearing on Zakia`s petition on March 20. 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. In her petition, Jafri had contended that Gulberg massacre was cold-blooded conspiracy by Modi and others to facilitate state-wide communal violence. She also claimed her husband made frantic calls to the police and even to Narendra Modi, who refused to send help. Besides Modi, 58 others were given a clean chit by the SIT. Following the petition by Jafri, the SIT had strongly defended its investigations and termed the protest petition a `piece of fiction`. Over a thousand people were killed in 2002 Gujarat riots. With PTI inputs