Hearing on Zakia Jafri`s plea to resume

Ahmedabad: Hearing on Zakia Jafri`s petition against Special Investigation Team`s closure report on Gujarat riots will resume from June 3, after a gap of almost two weeks following the transfer of the Metropolitan Magistrate who was hearing it.

On May 2, the Gujarat High Court as part of routine transfers shifted Magistrate BJ Ganatra to Anand. However, during the hearing of a bail application by one of the under trials of the Gulberg Society massacre case, the Supreme Court ordered High Court to revoke Ganatra`s transfer. Ganatra has been hearing the Zakia case since the apex court-appointed SIT filed its final report on investigation of her complaint against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others alleging complicity in 2002 riots. Her husband, Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was killed in the Gulberg Society massacre. Today, Magistrate Ganatra resumed charge in the metropolitan court, and after hearing the lawyers, fixed the next hearing for June 3 when SIT will resume its arguments. In January 2012, SIT`s final report to magistrate gave a clean chit to Modi and others over Jafri`s allegations. Jafri`s current petition opposes the report and seeks filing of charge sheet against Modi and 58 others, apart from further probe by an agency other than SIT. PTI