Supreme Court: In the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, challenging the SIT’s clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 Godhra riots, the Court said that it will hear the matter after four weeks. Zakia Jafri is the wife of ex-MP Ehsan Jafri who was one of the 68 killed in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg society.
The Petitioner submitted before the Court that a notice needs to be issued in the plea as it pertains to alleged “larger conspiracy” during February 27, 2002 and May 2002 and that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, the petitioner filed a protest which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering “substantiated merits”.
On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report saying there was “no prosecutable evidence” against the accused persons. The Gujarat high court in its October 5, 2017, order said the SIT probe was monitored by the Supreme Court. However, it partly allowed Zakia’s petition as far as its demand of a further investigation was concerned. It said the petitioner can approach an appropriate forum, including the magistrate’s court, a division bench of the high court or the Supreme Court seeking further investigation.
(Source: PTI)
